[dns-operations] Pinging the root name servers to check my connectivity?

[John Kristoff]

On Wed, 5 Sep 2012 11:13:15 +0200
Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer at nic.fr> wrote:

> Configuring a small network, I had the problem to test if the Internet
> connectivity is working [side note: so I can use the result in the
> test in the "parents" directive of Nagios/Icinga, to avoid alarms for
> every target when the outside link is simply down]. The problem is to
> find suitable targets for testing "the Internet". 

For the benefit of the community we have fap.cymru.com that we expect
to be used just for this purpose.  Feel free to aim your automated
liveliness tests at it.  Of course we reserve the right to apply the
ban hammer if abused.

There is also a HTTP page that will return the client IP address if
that might be useful:

  <http://fap.cymru.com/ip>

Would a DNS-based interface and a more complete web-based interface
that returns additional, useful detail for automated tests be of value?
Feel free to shoot me your suggestions off line.

Note, it is only a single research system now, but if the community
desires it, we would certianly consider scaling it to better serve the
global community.

John