MSNBC - Net snag sparks changes and questions

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	Net snag sparks changes and questions

Network Solutions revises
procedures,
faces critici= sm

By Alan Boyle
and Wayne Wurzer
MSNBC
=

= In the wake of an Internet foul-up that brie= fly slowed down e-mail traffic and made thousands of Web sites invisible,= Network Solutions said Friday that it was changing procedures to head of= f such problems in the future.
= Thursday’s incident raised new questi= ons about Network Solutions’ management of a crucial link in the gl= obal Internet.
= A systems administrator at the Virginia-bas= ed company threw a monkey wrench into the workings of the online world at= 2:30 a.m. ET Thursday by allowing corrupted data for Internet sites endi= ng with the suffix “.com” and “.net” to be distri= buted to other computers around the world. The data files match names suc= h as “msnbc.com” with their underlying numerical addresses &#= 0151; and the mix-up was analogous to scrambling up street signs and hous= e addresses on streets and highways of the Internet.
= Because of the timing of the incident, its = full impact was first felt in Europe. E-mail messages sent to an address = affected by the mix-up were bottled up or returned to their senders, and = affected Web sites became inaccessible. A user seeking an address ending = in .com, for example, would have received an error message that read = 47;could not resolve DNS.”
= The problem was discovered and corrected wi= thin four hours — but because of the way the “zone files= 8; are distributed to other computers, the glitch wasn’t fully corr= ected until Thursday afternoon.
=
HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS

= = = = = = = = = = = =






	U.S. registry focus of antitrust probe

	Wanted: Comments on domain names







	InterNIC Registration Services

	Network Solutions Inc.

	Matrix Information and Directory Services

	Commerce Department on Internet Domain Name Regis= tration and Administration

	Iperdome

	PG Media

	AlterNIC

	Enhanced Domain Name System

	Internet Gold Rush: News and how-to on domain nam= es

	Checkdomain: Search worldwide for available domai= n names







	Newsgroup for the discussion of Internet domains






=	= SciTech Bulletin Board

Network Solutions manages registration of In= ternet domain names under a contract with the National Science Foundation= =2E The process involves matching up domain names with numbers assigned t= o every computer on the Internet (for example, 207.68.146.15 is the numbe= r for one of MSNBC’s Web servers). When an Internet user tries to c= onnect with www.msnbc.com, a domain name server actually translates that = name into a number.
= Every day, the company updates the master d= atabase for names ending in .com, .net, .org, .edu and .gov. Thursday= 46;s foul-up affected about a million .com addresses and about 70,000 .ne= t addresses, but none of the other “top-level domains.”
= The master database is sent out daily to ei= ght other top-level servers around the world. From there, the pairings of= names and numbers filter down to every computer on the Internet. Sometim= es, computers on a lower level do not update particular pairings but use = previously cached information instead — and for that reason, some I= nternet users may have suffered no problems at all on Thursday.
= Network Solutions said that Thursday’= s foul-up began with a glitch in the database management program used for= keeping track of the domain names and numbers. The company said the prob= lem was detected by error-checking software, setting off lights and other= warnings. But the systems administrator on duty distributed corrupted fi= les anyway, said Aggie Nteta, communications consultant for Network Solut= ions.
= “The bottom line is that this was hum= an error,” Nteta said. “All of our quality assurance software= worked — alarms went off — but the worker responsible didn&#= 0146;t take the right action.”
=
NETWORK SOLUTIONS’ RESPONSE
= Nteta said the firm continues to have faith= in its system of releasing and maintaining the files, which it has done = through InterNIC since 1993 under its five-year contract with the Nationa= l Science Foundation. But she acknowledged that procedures were being cha= nged in the wake of Thursday’s incident.
= Nteta said the company immediately began ha= ving two workers of higher seniority sign off on the release of the files= =2E “It’s sort of a dual-key operation,” she said.
= Nteta said the worker involved would be dis= ciplined, but she declined to say how. “It’s hard to know wha= t happened,” she said. “We’re still trying to determine= that.”
= She said the company may provide additional= safeguards against accidental or malicious tampering with the master dat= abase.
= “We’ve been in this business fo= r four-and-a-half years,” she said. “This has given us an opp= ortunity to review how this nightly procedure has been handled.” =
COMPLAINTS ABOUT NETWORK SOLUTIONS
= The problem was the latest in a series of c= ontroversies involving Network Solutions and the way the company is handl= ing the InterNIC registration process.
= Last weekend AlterNIC, an InterNIC rival, b= riefly took over InterNIC’s address on the Web. AlterNIC described = this on its Web site as a form of protest over Network Solutions’ c= urrent monopoly on distribution of Internet addresses.
= Network Solutions also has encountered nume= rous problems with bad information on its database. Some businesses have = been double-billed, while others have had their Web sites dropped from th= e address lists by mistake.
= In March, a company seeking to set up an al= ternate system of domain-name registries, PG Media, charged Network Solut= ions with antitrust violations in a federal lawsuit.
= And in June, Network Solutions’ manag= ement of the InterNIC process came under assault from two federal agencie= s: The Justice Department began an antitrust investigation of the company= , and the Commerce Department invited public comment “to address in= creasing public concern about Internet domain name registration systems.&= #0148;
= Network Solutions’ contract to admini= ster the process runs out next year. There are already several alternate = name-registration schemes in the works, including AlterNIC, PG Media= 6;s “name.space” plan, a scheme called “enhanced DNS�= 148; and Iperdome’s system of “personal domain names.”<= BR> = Nteta said Network Solutions believes = 7;competition is something that should be introduced” — a sta= tement the company’s would-be competitors agreed with wholeheartedl= y.
= “I would rather see the marketplace d= ecide what are the right TLDs [top-level domains] and the right policies = rather than a big, centralized bureaucracy,” said Jay Fenello, pres= ident of Iperdome.
= “The tenor of the conversation is not= whether [there should be competition], but how,” said Michael Dono= van, the attorney who filed suit against Network Solutions on PG Media�= 146;s behalf. He complained that Network Solutions was “hiding behi= nd bureaucratic channels” and using delaying tactics “to prol= ong the monopoly.”



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