... If I then put a server that looks at the requested URL (including the domain name) and serves up advertising, then I can make good money.

If you think this is evil, then you understand the problem. It has actually happened.

I forgot about this trick, but you're right. It's completely possible to do.

MMMmmmm...

Only a "trick"? And of no concern?...

No concern of standards being abused and corrupted at everyone else's cost?

(That is, some servers for DNS give different answers than others for the exact same query?)


Regards,
Martin

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Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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Or are you telling me that on one DNS server a domain name properly gives a 404 while a different DNS server gives a parked site? Still, sounds like that's a site locally owned by that ISP. That can't be done for all URLs because its impossible to know what URL a user is going to type.

Ah, actually, it is.

Let's say for the moment that my name is "Stratton Sclavos" and I want to make a lot of money.

My company, Verisign, operates the central registry for com. and generates the zone used by the com. top level domains.

If I add a record to the zone that says:

*.com IN A 100.200.300.400

Then, the top level domain servers will return 100.200.300.400 for every domain that does not exist in .com.

If I then put a server that looks at the requested URL (including the domain name) and serves up advertising, then I can make good money.

If you think this is evil, then you understand the problem. It has actually happened.

I forgot about this trick, but you're right. It's completely possible to do.

And Earthlink does do something like this. If you have a miss, it returns a page rather than a 404. Somehow name resolution requests for nodes on my LAN go out to Earthlink FIRST, and if there is a 404 from there, then the local name rssolution takes place. Unfortunately, this fragments the network if the external DNS always returns a page rather than a custom 404 error page.

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MMMmmmm...

Only a "trick"? And of no concern?...

No concern of standards being abused and corrupted at everyone else's cost?

(That is, some servers for DNS give different answers than others for the exact same query?)


Regards,
Martin

Not a case of standards being abused, but a case of standards being used for evil instead of good. It is one reason I've made a conscious choice to give Verisign as little money as possible.

There is evil beyond Microsoft.

It is not unusual for different DNS servers to give different answers for the exact same query. In fact, one of my criticisms of Microsoft is that their DNS server is too consistent.

It really comes down to intent. If it is because the primary zone was updated, and the updates haven't reached the secondaries, that's fine. If it is due to outdated caching, that's expected, and it should go away when TTL runs out.

If it is due to cache poisoning, or just plain evil (as was the case with Verisign's SiteFinder "service") then it is unacceptable in the extreme.

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