On recomendation from someone on this list,
I signed up for Speakeasy DSL. The helped
me set up a primary name server (DNS) and
they ran a secondary name server for a few
extra dollars per month. This has been
working well for about a decade.
Speakeasy was sold to MegaPath, who yesterday
sent me a message that included this:
> Dear MegaPath Customer,
>
> This email is to advise you that MegaPath is
> migrating its legacy Speakeasy ISP, web hosting,
> webmail and DNS services to a more advanced platform.
>
> <Braindead "customer-experience"
> happy market-talk deleted>
>
> Going forward, we will no longer support secondary
> DNS services. If your domain is set up in this
> manner, please be sure to make the proper changes to
> avoid a post-migration service disruption.
This all happens next Tuesday.
I read this is "We are breaking what has worked
for a decade, there is nothing you can do,
have fun finding a new ISP in two days."
I was wall-punching cursing mad.
When I calmed down a bit I began to think, if they
don't break anything else, maybe it's not so bad. The
system was designed to tolerate failure. _I_ was not
designed to tolerate _intentional_ failure, but
everything should still work if the secondary name
server is broken.
Since I have only one IP address on one DSL line,
I never really saw the need for a secondary server
in the first place. I run a primary server because
(A) I like to think of myself as a programmer,
and it is self education to figure out how to
do it.
(B) Sometimes I create subdomains and run test
program servers in them.
The RFC's require a second name server, and
the registrar asks for it, but who's going to
care really? If the primary name server goes
out, so do all other servers in the domain,
since it's all really just one computer.
What would you recommend?
If anyone else has the same problem, I could
be your secondary, and you could be mine.
-- Keith
