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Nominum Calls Open Source DNS "a Recipe For Problems"

Posted by Soulskill on from the dem's-fightin'-woids dept.

Raindeer writes "Commercial DNS software provider Nominum, in an effort to promote its new cloud-based DNS service, SKYE, has slandered all open source/freeware DNS packages. It said: 'Given all the nasty things that have happened this year, freeware is a recipe for problems, and it's just going to get worse. ... So, whether it's Eircom in Ireland or a Brazilian ISP that was attacked earlier this year, all of them were using some variant of freeware. Freeware is not akin to malware, but is opening up those customers to problems.' This has the DNS community fuming. Especially when you consider that Nominum was one of the companies affected by the DNS cache poisoning problem of last year, something PowerDNS, MaraDNS and DJBDNS (all open source) weren't vulnerable to."

10 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Linux seems to be fine... by ichthus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Linux seems to be fine for them to run their web server.

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    1. Re:Linux seems to be fine... by Wodin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What's worse is they use BIND!

      https://lists.dns-oarc.net/pipermail/dns-operations/2009-September/004481.html

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      -- Wodin
  2. Blow more smoke up our posteriors... by autocracy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll sum up their argument: We use security through obscurity, and that makes us better. You should pay us for that. Also, when we say "cloud-based," we really just mean "in our data centers." They're really abusing the definition of cloud computing, just because it's the current profit-generating buzzword.

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  3. Good Grief by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know about you, but any company that feels the only way they can sell their product is to basically slander their competitors isn't likely to get my attention. As it is, and as much of a pain in the ass as Bind can be, I have yet to encounter anything quite as powerful as Bind9. It's certainly not without flaws, but after having had to deal with the inadequacies of Microsoft's DNS, anyone who comes up to me and says "Oh yeah, those open source DNS servers are the lesser products" is either a liar or a moron.

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    1. Re:Good Grief by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know about you, but any company that feels the only way they can sell their product is to basically slander their competitors isn't likely to get my attention.

      And from the blog thats linked:

      Way, way back when, Nominum employees successfully performed a denial of service attack on PowerDNS. I thought they had grown over this kind of behavior, but it appears they didn't.

      I hope no one goes to Nominum, they play dirty. I don't think the internet needs to be more dirty, what with all the scammers out there, both hackers and ISP's alike.

  4. Freeware will not eat your children by spun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "But it is opening up these customers to problems." Nice, textbook FUD/propaganda. Put the thought out there. Deflect attention from your own failings. Lump all 'freeware' DNS into the same basket. Call it 'freeware' instead of Open Source to link it to badly written DOS/Windows programs. Wow, this company is sleazy. It would be such poetic justice for some grey hat hackers to take these goons down.

    Open source DNS is tried and true, everyone uses it. No one was ever fired for installing BIND. This new flash in the pan company has been hacked before, how long until they are hacked again? Why trust your DNS to some untested startup using inappropriate buzzwords like 'cloud computing?' Why pay for what you can get for free? Why outsource your DNS to someone who may or may not be here tomorrow? Heh. We can play at the FUD game, too.

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    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  5. Re:Even if what they say is true... by Spazztastic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... how can you trust these guys to write your DNS software? They're the very guys who were contracted to write Bind9, the foremost open source domain name server, which they're now complaining about.

    The other question is if they are now using elements of the Bind9 source in their closed source system and are not properly disclosing it.

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    Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
  6. Re:Well by the_womble · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The argument will be that since they run Redhat it's not considered open source or freeware, even though it is a Linux distribution that is proprietary.

    It is easy enough to prove that Red Hat is open source, the problem is that the "repeat the press release" standard of journalism of the article that accepts any assertion made by an interviewee or a press release as fact.

  7. Contradictions by Bert64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You really do need to look under the hood and kick the tyres. Maybe it's a Ferrari on the outside, but it could be an Austin Maxi on the inside.

    He contradicts himself, he tells you to kick the tyres and look under the hood, and then touts his product which he explicitly states won't let you look under the hood...

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  8. Re:Well by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But why is it the journalist's job to spell out that you're reading a press release from a commercial DNS provider denigrating competition.

    Because that's the job of a reporter -- to investigate, analyse, interpret and explain the information. Otherwise, the reporter is adding no value and simple economic theory would suggest that his/her job should disappear.

    And newspaper owners wonder why they are losing business?

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