[isp-dns] Re: US Department of Homeland Security - broken DNS for www.dhs.gov

[Pete Ehlke <pde-isp-dns@...]

On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 03:37:10AM -0600, Phil Howard wrote:
> www.dhs.gov.            900     IN      CNAME   www.dhs.gov.edgesuite.net.
> www.dhs.gov.edgesuite.net. 21600 IN     CNAME   a830.g.akamai.net.
> a830.g.akamai.net.      20      IN      A       199.232.159.232
> a830.g.akamai.net.      20      IN      A       199.232.159.231
> 
> Two CNAMEs.  Hmm.  Not good.

Standard akamai edgesuite DNS setup. This is akamai's decision, not
DHS's.
 
> Also, the reverse DNS is:
> 
> 199.232.159.231 = a199-232-159-231.deploy.akamaitechnologies.net
> 199.232.159.232 = a199-232-159-232.deploy.akamaitechnologies.net
> 
> And those don't match in forward (not that this breaks things, but
> it does show me more things they can't get right).

Ditto. 

DHS didn't get anything wrong here, unless you consider having purchased
akamai edgesuite "wrong".

> BTW, when their webmaster@... and postmaster@dhs.gov mailboxes
> bounced, I used their web feedback form.  That form script sends
> email with MY email as the return address, to feedback@...
> which also bounced, and I got the bounce.
> 
Now that *is* broken.

> I know I could have had all that set up right in less than a day.
> I just wonder how many weeks it will take for the government and
> its contractors to get it right.
> 
Feel free to propose to Akamai's architects how you would redisign their
service in less than a day. I'm sure they'll be glad to have the
feedback.

-P.