Skins "explains" the problem

[miskie]

note from franksolich: this is three threads all merged into one; naturally this is a popular subject of great interest, and hence the duplications which aren't exact duplications--carry on

Skins explains yesterdays hiccup HERE but that doesn't stop the conspiracy theories.

Skinner ADMIN  (1000+ posts)          Tue Mar-01-11 03:28 PM
Original message
People have been asking what this so-called "DNS problem" is, and how it happened. Let me explain.   
      

Whenever you type a domain name for a web site into your web browser, you computer needs to figure out where that website is. So it sends a request to something called a DNS server, which says something like this: "I'm looking for www.democraticunderground.com, could you please tell me where it is?" And then the DNS server tells your computer where to find the site. There are many, many DNS servers in the world that handle these requests.

For 10 years, we haven't had a problem. Your computer asks for democraticunderground.com, and some DNS server somewhere would point you to the correct place. Until yesterday, when some of the DNS servers stopped pointing to the correct place. Here's why.

On January 20 of this year, I received an email from our domain registrar, indicating that they had received a complaint about our "WHOIS" information being incorrect. In other words, someone complained that the public contact information related to the democraticunderground.com domain name was wrong. I do not know who made the request, or why. I suppose it is possible that it came from a concerned citizen, but I think it is more likely that it was a bored person who sent the complaint on a lark to see if they might cause us some problems. Which they did.

I immediately logged in to our domain registrar and updated our contact info. Some of you may be aware that Democratic Underground changed our PO Box last year, and that had not been updated on our domain name contact info. I changed the PO Box number and the Zip Code and clicked submit. Received my confirmation email about the successful update of my contact info. Domain registrar has a record of the fact that I updated our info. Problem solved.

Except the problem wasn't solved.

What I did not realize -- and what my domain registrar did not tell me -- is that the complaint was about the Democratic Underground PHONE NUMBER, not the PO Box. And, indeed, the phone number on our WHOIS information is wrong: 555-555-5555. That is the phone number that has appeared on our account for ten years, because I don't want some right-wing nut-job crank-calling me with death threats in the middle of the night.

Put another way: This was the insidious computer glitch commonly referred to as "human error." I get an email about out-of-date contact info. I remember that my PO Box recently changed. I log in and change PO Box. I completely ignore the incorrect phone number.

I did not receive any more correspondence from my domain registrar until yesterday morning around 11:00 am, when I got an email with the ominous title "Name Server Update Confirmation ID", which stated that my name server had been changed. I had not requested the Name Server Update.

So I immediately go to the domain registrar's website and try to log in, but get a message indicating that an Admin has blocked me out.

My first thought is "Holy S***. Someone's ripped off our password, logged in to our account, gave themselves admin privileges, changed the name server, and then blocked us out."

I immediately get on the telephone and call the domain registrar. While I'm on hold -- for 25 minutes! -- I am frantically changing all the passwords on all my accounts on every website I can think of.

Finally get through to a human being, start explaining my problem, and then AT&T drops my call.

Call back, wait another 25 minutes, finally talk to a human being, who explains that my phone number is wrong. Which is why they changed our DNS. No "last chance" email. No "I see you changed your info but missed one thing." They just shut it off.

I changed the phone number, and updated our DNS info. But the damage was done.


Even thought we had updated our DNS info, it takes a long time for the updates to spread (or "propagate") to all the DNS servers throughout the Internet. In fact, well after the time I corrected the DNS info, some DNS servers had not yet received the earlier INCORRECT DNS information that was working its way around -- let alone the correction which was way behind and (even now) still hasn't made it to some of the darker corners of the Internet.

They say it sometimes takes as long as 72 hours for DNS information to propagate throughout the Internet.

If you are still experiencing problems, you can get around by setting your computer to use a public DNS server. Some instructions are available here. Google has not been working for me, but OpenDNS has:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

If anyone else has any tips, feel free to post them in this thread.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I apologize for the screw-up.

David Allen
DU Administrator

And let the paranoia begin !

[Ralph Wiggum]

These idiots need rubber rooms.

kentuck  (1000+ posts)        Tue Mar-01-11 03:55 PM
Response to Original message
13. David, I don't think it was a screw-up...
 I think it was nefarious. I really do.

Like you would be the only person to make such a minor mistake and get shut down?

I think there is more. I just don't know what?

However, I do think it is political and an infringement upon our right to free speech. If that is the case...

Look, Kentuck.  No one cares enough to shut down your precious Democrat Underground.  Mainstream Dems won't have a thing to do with your site.  Even $kimmer realizes this.  He just takes your money and allows you guys to fling feces in a somewhat controlled environment.

[Ralph Wiggum]

And speaking of guys who still aren't getting laid:

steve2470  (1000+ posts)        Tue Mar-01-11 04:11 PM
Response to Original message
27. thanks for taking the time to explain this, Skinner ! nt

[Ballygrl]

Was kentuck upset about American's For Prosperity being down?

[FreeBorn]

 

[ScubaGuy]

I'm having a hard time believing that story.

I'm willing to bet that Skinner either forgot to or just didn't pay the bill, let the registration on democraticunderground.com expire, or was dicking around with the registration page and didn't know what the hell he was doing.

[chitownchica]

These idiots need rubber rooms.
 

Look, Kentuck.  No one cares enough to shut down your precious Democrat Underground.  Mainstream Dems won't have a thing to do with your site.  Even $kimmer realizes this.  He just takes your money and allows you guys to fling feces in a somewhat controlled environment.

hahahaha- look at the big brain on Kentuck.  It's one thing to think such a stupid thing. It's far worse to write it and have those idiotic thoughts memorialized. 

[PatriotGame]

kentuck  (1000+ posts)        Tue Mar-01-11 03:55 PM
Response to Original message
13. David, I don't think it was a screw-up...
 I think it was nefarious. I really do.

Like you would be the only person to make such a minor mistake and get shut down?

I think there is more. I just don't know what?

However, I do think it is political and an infringement upon our right to free speech. If that is the case...

Repeat after me numb-nuts-DUmmy:

"Vee-Are-Double U-See"

Suck it...

[AllosaursRus]

I'm having a hard time believing that story.

I'm willing to bet that Skinner either forgot to or just didn't pay the bill, let the registration on democraticunderground.com expire, or was dicking around with the registration page and didn't know what the hell he was doing.

Yep, he's just coverin' his ass. Given that the complete accumulative IQ of the DUmp is around 13, I'd go with skins hittin' the wrong button, or missin' a payment.

[franksolich]

I don't think my fellow alum Skins needs to worry about calls from "right-wing nut-jobs" if he listed the correct telephone number.

If I were my fellow alum, I'd be f-a-a-a-a-r more concerned about calls from primitives whining about this or that.

[Randy]

Private site on a private server hosted by a private company ran through a series of privately owned computers in a network that's privately owned hooked to a privately owned trunk line. All this is governed by rules that everyone who hooks to the public part of the network follows.

So in what part of this chain does free speech apply to?

[Revolution]

hahahaha- look at the big brain on Kentuck.  It's one thing to think such a stupid thing. It's far worse to write it and have those idiotic thoughts memorialized. 

Meh. I thought it was a possibility, but nothing more. I'm not one of the DUmors who will delve into it like Scientology, or Xultor's....not even sure what to call it anymore...


Since the thread is here, I found reply 6 to be quite interesting. WHY would you post that personal DU info, and WHY would $kinner not consider that a high crime worthy of banishment? It is unlikely someone would use that stuff for any purpose, but for gosh sakes, it is supposed to be private, isn't it?

[NHSparky]

I'll just drop this little tidbit in here, since nobody has seen fit to give credit where credit is due:

ROVE, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!!!!!

[Ballygrl]

Paradoxical  (35 posts) Tue Mar-01-11 03:51 PM
Response to Original message
11. I can't believe they didn't try to contact you first.
   
They basically shut down one of the largest forums on the internet.

Really?

The Drudge Report:

Alexa Traffic Rank: 426
United States Flag Traffic Rank in US: 83

Breitbart:

Alexa Traffic Rank: 3,135
United States Flag Traffic Rank in US: 804

 

Free Republic:

Alexa Traffic Rank: 4,735
United States Flag Traffic Rank in US: 1,150

Democratic Underground:

Alexa Traffic Rank: 5,585
United States Flag Traffic Rank in US: 1,525

 

[Revolution]

ATTENTION SKINNER: I believe what I am about to post via one of your members at Democratic Underground" would be a violation. Not sure about your TOS, or how you feel about your privacy potentially being infiltrated by a third party, but here it is:

Recursion (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Tue Mar-01-11 04:37 PM
Response to Reply #9
43. I do; which client are you using?
   
Edited on Tue Mar-01-11 04:37 PM by Recursion
Registrant:
Democratic Underground, LLC
PO Box 42557
Washington, DC 20015
US

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: DEMOCRATICUNDERGROUND.COM
Created on: 05-DEC-00
Expires on: 05-DEC-15
Last Updated on: 28-FEB-11

Administrative, Technical Contact:
Allen, David skinner@democraticunderground.com
Democratic Underground, LLC
PO Box 42557
Washington, DC 20015
US
202-XXX-XXXX
202-XXX-XXXX (edited for Skinner's privacy, even though it's being served by whois servers currently)


Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DCA.NET
NS2.DCA.NET

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x534859

Now, I wish to tell you that the edited version is not all that is out there. I caught the original, and one of our members has it safe and sound. You may want to be more careful in the future about these kinds of things. People like me...we are not "evil forces." We merely wish to help you make better decisions, monitor your members a bit more closely, and safeguard yourself.

Humbly yours,
Revolution.

[Tess Anderson]

Private site on a private server hosted by a private company ran through a series of privately owned computers in a network that's privately owned hooked to a privately owned trunk line. All this is governed by rules that everyone who hooks to the public part of the network follows.

So in what part of this chain does free speech apply to?

I see what you mean, but remember, you're not stupid. I mean, I doubt you'd do this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x535512

hlthe2b  (1000+ posts)      Tue Mar-01-11 04:53 PM
Original message
I have tried every single recommended fix to connect to DU
 I am this close to saying just delete my account after 10 continuous years. Can you say frustrated? I have lost two days trying to resolve this, and now have to get my deadline work done.

 

[GOBUCKS]

Come on, Skimmer, what a crock! His loooong, convoluted tale sounds exactly like the Andyscammers describing their fraudulent woes. All he needs to add is the story of how he went into the domain registrar's office and found all his paperwork lost on someone's desk.

And then franksolich shut down the DUmp's Paypal account. By the time they got that straightened out, it was too late, and they had to reschedule updating the DUmp DNS information.

But it's all okay, because now all that corrected DUmp DNS info is in a single secret account, "Sealed vs. Sealed", which will be opened and put online within 24 business hours. Plagiarist Pitt is outraged, and vows to grind that DNS server under his boot, scrape it off with his knife, and feed it to his cat.

Just be sure to keep sending money, because Skimmer is only ten dollars away from dumping the enigmatic Elad and hiring a competent IT guy - maybe DUmmy greenbriar's alcoholic skinhead husband, who's apparently been ditched by the city of Wichita.

[Revolution]

  ....to all of the above.

[Revolution]

Frank, I believe you wanted to do something with this? 

And I'm surprised there have been no replies here thus far. I would think that this is big. Maybe not HUGE, but no small matter, I would say...

[FreeBorn]

 

[thelaughingman]

That's right, folks.  He blames us -- conservatives.  Multiple times.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Skinner/396

On January 20 of this year, I received an email from our domain registrar, indicating that they had received a complaint about our "WHOIS" information being incorrect. In other words, someone complained that the public contact information related to the democraticunderground.com domain name was wrong. I do not know who made the request, or why. I suppose it is possible that it came from a concerned citizen, but I think it is more likely that it was a bored person who sent the complaint on a lark to see if they might cause us some problems. Which they did.

I immediately logged in to our domain registrar and updated our contact info. Some of you may be aware that Democratic Underground changed our PO Box last year, and that had not been updated on our domain name contact info. I changed the PO Box number and the Zip Code and clicked submit. Received my confirmation email about the successful update of my contact info. Domain registrar has a record of the fact that I updated our info. Problem solved.

Except the problem wasn't solved.

What I did not realize -- and what my domain registrar did not tell me -- is that the complaint was about the Democratic Underground PHONE NUMBER, not the PO Box. And, indeed, the phone number on our WHOIS information is wrong: 555-555-5555. That is the phone number that has appeared on our account for ten years, because I don't want some right-wing nut-job crank-calling me with death threats in the middle of the night.

Yep.  It's not his fault for providing false information.  It's conservatives' fault.

[Doc]

What else was posted?  I just pulled up this same information on WhoIs myself.  Nothing at all interesting.  I thought Skinner had to make all the correct changes because of the DNS problems yesterday?  He said he didn't want to put a phone number up because some right-wingers might call and threaten him or something of that sort.  As if anyone here has any care in the world to call him.  I know I don't.  lol

[Revolution]

Well, the numbers weren't edited out in the post when I found it. That was my main deal. I just somehow lost the copy of it. It is with a trust, and more knowledgeable friend though. I just intended to paste it as was, but nothing is in my outbox like I thought it should be so I could find it. :sigh:

Anyway, if you were an Admin of a forum, would you like Someone posting more than enough information for someone with nefarious purposes in mind to do some damage? Not that it's going to happen, but I sure as hell wouldn't. It would be grounds for immediate suspension in my book, and most likely a banning.

I kind of figured "Name Removed" would show up. Now I'm kinda sad.

Has $kinner gone soft? I mean, how many offenses that were no wrong doing at all has Dick Skinner TS'd people over? In a decent, and civilized person's mind, this should be (as I said) a high crime. However, good, and decent people only have the slightest idea how a primitive's mind works. Let alone Head Primitive.

[AllosaursRus]

Private site on a private server hosted by a private company ran through a series of privately owned computers in a network that's privately owned hooked to a privately owned trunk line. All this is governed by rules that everyone who hooks to the public part of the network follows.

So in what part of this chain does free speech apply to?

It really doesn't, except for the fact they preach it all the time on the site whenever they think theirs is bein' denied or it is something they disagree with. They're all for squelching free speech if it makes them look bad.

You'd think if you're goin' to scream free speech when you're the one in question, you'd scream free speech for those you disagree with 24/7.

Or am I just blowin' smoke outa my ass?

I didn't know we had two definitions...........

[Revolution]

Of course. Isn''t it always?

For future reference, though, you could have posted this in Miskie's thread. No worries though. I made the same mistakes, and still do at times.