RE: [ihc] The bulletin?

["Mac @ TRIAD" <mac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

## >> Use the links I gave you and save each link when you get to
## >> the site. Use
## >> the links you find there to go to other sections of the new
## >> website. It will
## >> no longer matter whether you have the old addresses saved at
## >> that point.
## >> Just give them a slightly different name.

the problem is that it's not the links or the domain name that i need.
through my own DNS servers, using "binderbulletin.org" as a starting point,
i should be able to hit the BB and its host DNS servers to resolve URLs to
IPs and find anything i need.  however, if the IP addresses of the BB
servers, currently stored in my DNS servers as 63.228.66.121 for
"atlas.binderbulletin.org" and 63.228.66.122 for "www.binderbulletin.org",
were to change (which i suspect they have done), and my own DNS servers
don't reflect that change, then clicking on links (or typing in URLs) from
within my network will send the HTTP requests to *my* DNS servers for
resolution, which will then send browser traffic to the old IP addresses
rather than whatever they've changed to, regardless of the URL used,
resulting in "there is no response, the server could be down or is not
responding" errors in Netscrape, and "The page cannot be displayed, Cannot
find server or DNS Error" errors in Internet Suxplorer--even when the BB is
actually up and running using those new IP address numbers.  all the
machines here are configured to resolve to my local DNS servers rather than
an outside DNS source, and i have the most frequently used URLs and IPs
either stored in local zones or in the DNS cache with a 13-month TTL.
originally this was done to conserve bandwidth when i had six machines
sharing a 56k dial-up connection.  now we have broadband here shared by
twelve machines, so local DNS zoning and caching has become a habit that i
don't want to break.

## >> Your browser should ask you if you want to overwrite the old
## >> link if they
## >> are titled the same. If not, delete the old link. If you want
## >> to really get
## >> crazy, make a new folder for the new links so you can save
## >> them, then delete
## >> the old ones en masse.

ordinarily i don't save my most commonly used URLs in bookmarks.  i use a
web browser so infrequently that when i need to do something on the web, i
just type in the URL by hand whenever i want to go there.  about all that's
in my bookmarks are pages that i've needed to access for information at one
time or another that i thought maybe i may need again in the future and that
i might not remember how i found, so they got saved.  for a couple years
this machine was being used by three or four other people, and they saved a
fair number of bookmarks (guess the web was really popular for those folks,
huh?), so there is actually a lot of stuff in the bookmarks for both
browsers.  but most of it is junk not having anything to do with me.  i just
never cleaned it out.

in all the changes that the BB has undergone in the last couple of years,
the actual domain name and URL hasn't changed, at least not since i've been
visiting the site.  the IP addresses have changed at least twice in that
time, though, and each time they change, untill my DNS zones get the updated
IP addresses, i can't get to the site at all.  at the time that i created a
zone for the BB in my own DNS, it was because the BB's hosting was having
trouble with their DNS servers and frequently people couldn't get to the BB
because its own DNS servers wouldn't resolve the URL to the correct IP
addresses.  the advantage to my system is that once i set up the zone on my
servers, i can get to the BB website regardless of the host DNS status, *if*
the BB is online and the IP address hasn't been changed.  the drawback to
this is that if the IP addresses do change, untill i update my zone to the
new IP numbers, no web traffic from within my network will reach the BB
server (e-mail traffic can be likewise affected), and it can make it
difficult to find the new IP addresses through the most commonly used
methods.

the simplest solution at this point is to just wait for the BB to come back
online, then delete my existing BB zones and create new ones with the new IP
addresses.  as i said previously, i was just being lazy and trying to get
someone to do the legwork of getting the new IP addresses for me so i didn't
have to delete the zones and start over.  it takes about three minutes to
make the changes and propagate them across all four DNS servers, so it's not
really a big deal, i just didn't want to get off my lazy butt and do it.

thank you for the input, Allan.  if it weren't for the internal DNS issues
here in my network, your solution would work perfectly, when the BB comes
back online from where-ever it's currently hiding.

--Mac

---------------------------------------------------------------
Take care and be well, all thee and thine;

May the Hamr lend thee Strength and Courage,
May the Twin Ravens lend thee Wisdom and Guidance,
May the Wolves Guard and Protect thee, and
May the Light of Harmony ever shine brightly upon thee and thine,
Through all thy Life's Journeys, from this life unto the next!

Hail the Gods and Goddesses of our Folk!
Wassail!

Krystof "Mac" MacBryghde
TyrGothi

http://master.triad.ath.cx/