[arin-discuss] Offer to buy IP space

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

On 7/2/2010 4:11 PM, Bill Woodcock wrote:
>
> On Jul 2, 2010, at 4:00 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>> It would take very little effort for them to design their gateways
>> so that the gateway boots, then using a FQDN, contacts a server of
>> theirs and obtains the DNS server numbers they actually want to be
>> used.
>
> That's nice for the gateway.  What about the users?
>
>> Or they could create a website so that the educational network
>> admin could go to that site and click a button and an active X
>> control could fill out the correct IP address in his Windows
>> server.
>
> That's nice for the network admin.  What about the users?
>
>> In short, there's many creative ways that they can distribute a
>> difficult-to-remember IP number, one that could change
>> dynamically.
>
> That's nice for whoever prints little wallet-cards, but what about
> the user, who has to remember an IP address, or always be carrying
> around a little wallet card?  Or get a tattoo?  Many end-users are
> averse to having IP addresses tattooed on parts of their bodies that
> they're willing to expose in a work environment.
>

You can code up a little app that stuffs the IP number in
the PC and distribute this app.  It would be more useful IMHO than
the usual garbage apps that do stuff like add search toolbars
to the web browser.

>> A service that requires end-users to memorize an IP address is not
>> well-enough designed to be worth paying money for, IMHO.
>
> Whether or not the user is paying isn't relevant.  If you think the
> DNS should have a bootstrap mechanism that doesn't require someone,
> somewhere, to know an IP address, that's great, but I suggest you
> take it up with DNSext, rather than ARIN.
>

Your being deliberately obfuscating.  This has nothing to do with
a DNS bootstrapping mechanism and you know it.

This org is proposing to substitute THEIR nameserver IP numbers
for the ISP's nameserver IP addresses that the user would normally
obtain when they jack into a wireless or wired connection and
get an IP address via DHCP  (which contains the DNS server IP
addresses as you well know)  Presumably THEIR nameservers will not
return host IP numbers for "objectionable" websites and the users
will presumably like this.

If the user is within an educational org  (this company's target) then
the usual state of affairs is the org's network admin would use
these DNS server IPs in their DHCP server.  Then the end users would
be "protected"

If the end user is Ma and Pa Kettle in Cable-land, then Ma and Pa
Kettle aren't going to have sufficient technical expertise to even
be competent to change the DNS server IP numbers in their PeeCee,
let alone put in the right number, whether it's easy-to-remember or
not.

Bill, it's obviously been way too long since you have worked with
the general public.  I suggest you spend a day of penance answering
phone calls for your company's tech support line.  Once you get
3 or 4 requests for "where's the any key" you might reevaluate your
opinion that having users muck with their DNS server settings is
a Good Thing :-)

Seriously, the competent computer users know enough not to need
protecting against the dirty picture websites.  It's the incompetent
bozos that you cannot even trust with a burnt-out match that are
the market that wants filtering.  And the idea of having them change
any setting in their computer is a recipe for disaster.

Ted

> -Bill
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