[dns-operations] Handling broken domains...

[Doug Barton]

David Ulevitch wrote:
> On Jul 17, 2006, at 10:50 AM, Paul Vixie wrote:
> 
>>> How is this handled elsewhere in other resolver implementations?
>>>
>>> I'm trying to decide how to best fix it.
>> what's supposed to happen is, this domain should mostly not work, the
>> the person who broke it will get complaints about it, and then fix it.
>>
>> RDNS implementors/operators who work around this kind of breakage are
>> keeping the right thing from happening.  my advice is: "let it burn."

FWIW, I agree with the opinions already expressed. Down the road of trying
to second guess the domain holder's intentions lies madness. Also, without
experiencing the consequences of their actions, they are unlikely to learn
better. Papering over their mistakes makes you a contributor to the problem,
instead of part of the solution.

> I wonder how far contacting the domain owner scales.  We're up to 2  
> or 3 of these domains right now. :-(

It really depends on how many resources you want to devote to this issue.
When I was at Yahoo! I used to do this for non-mission critical domains on a
"time available" basis. The reactions I got fell fairly evenly into 3
categories:

1. No response, followed roughly in halves by fixing and ignoring the problem.
2. "You're wrong/an idiot/etc." followed roughly in halves by fixing and
ignoring the problem.
3. Genuine appreciation for my efforts, usually followed by fixing the problem.

In my book, "trying to help" is the Right Thing in any case, but my
experience reinforces for me that in the long run it does actually have a
net positive benefit. Not to mention the business part of my brain sees this
as a potential marketing upside for you.

Now don't even get me started on the hair pulling involved trying to get
mission critical partners to fix their broken DNS ...

Doug

-- 
    If you're never wrong, you're not trying hard enough