Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

[Paul Lussier]

"Ben Scott" <dragonhawk at gmail.com> writes:

>   Really.  That's interesting.  I'm on Comcast (Dover, NH) and I
> haven't noticed any problems of that sort.  Any pattern to the sites,
> that you can discern?

Nope.  The two I can remember of hand are:

  www.evangelicaloutpost.com[1]
  www.shamusyoung.com[2]

Both result in 'not found' errors from home:

  $ host www.evangelicaloutpost.com
  Host www.evangelicaloutpost.com not found: 2(SERVFAIL)
  $ host  www.shamusyoung.com
  Host www.shamusyoung.com not found: 2(SERVFAIL)

using these DNS servers:

  $ cat /etc/resolv.conf
  search hsd1.ma.comcast.net.
  nameserver 24.34.240.9
  nameserver 24.34.241.9
  nameserver 68.87.64.196

>   Also, are you using manually configured DNS servers, or what they
> give out via DHCP?  If the former, you might want to try the later.  I
> know they've been changing things around as of late.

I think they're managed via DHCP.

>> Is this intentional censoring on Comcast's part, or just incompetance
>> at maintaining a DNS server infrastructure?
>
>   "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by
> stupidity."

Theirs or mine ;)  

>> How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a
>> "membership" benefit?
>
>   Well, from a policy standpoint, I have no objections, but I wonder
> about some technical aspects.  I'm not sure about the performance of
> that system.  More importantly, unless you have a static IP address,
> how do we open it up to just "members"?

We couldn't really restrict it, not practically anyway.  Perhaps we
could play with DNSSEC, but I don't believe that actually is intended
for this purpose.
-- 
Seeya,
Paul

The actual urls I was trying to access were:

[1] http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/003253.html
   (Marine Corps Rules for Gun Fighting)
[2] http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612
    (DM of the Rings)

Both quite amusing, though the latter is much more of a time sink :)