What would happen if a domain register got knocked out in a disaster?

[Cleo]

Watching the hurricane move over DirectNic and wondering what happens to DNS if they are knocked out?

From what I understand each host runs their own DNS and a register like DirectNic is responsible for the records of its clients.

Actually I don't fully understand how DNS works. It amazes that it works as well as it does.

I also see that M3 Server is in the path but they are way inland, but still…

[plateman]

who knows, I seen some scarry shit on the news tonight about the shit in florida.. I hope soggy is alright and anyone down there.. my domains are through Melboureit in DD land..

[cd34]

The simple answer is that it shouldn't affect things. The registrar is responsible for handing the Root servers their portion of the delegated domains. If the registrar goes down, the Root servers will use the data from the last received update.

Changes that you make that haven't been submitted to the Root Servers may not be published.

Once connectivity is reestablished, they will submit their updates.

As a side note, Network Solutions is starting root zone updates twice a day which will make nameserver changes go a little more quickly. Not a big deal if you're not moving your site from one nameserver to another, but, a welcome change.

[DarkEmber]

I'm not an expert Cleo, but I'll give my understanding and people can correct me where I'm wrong. I figure I'll give this a shot and see how far off I am.

Your registrar registers your domain within the(.com,.net, etc.) and says "the nameservers for this domain are here(wherever you say they are). That info is stored in the ROOT servers as well (theres a bunch). If you are using the registrars DNS servers as your main DNS and they get knocked out, people may see some disruption. I'm guessing your DNS is served by your HOST and not the registrar so the registrar being offline would be nothing major, other than not being able to get new domains there for a while . Even if your DNS goes offline, depending on what your DNS record expiration rate is, who's caching your DNS info, etc...you could still be accesible by people who have your info stored. Just like a new domain takes time to propagate, it takes a little bit to die off, but it sure does die quicker than it goes active hehe. Thats my understanding of it, as a layman.
just think of it as a big pyramid scheme.

ROOT

SERVER1 SERVER2

SERVER A1 SERVER A2 SERVER A3

YOUR NAMESERVER1 YOURNAMESERVER2

Like a mailman finding the house(host101).street(domain).town(com) each portion of the DNS network knows where to point people bassed on what town, what street, and eventually someone knows which house you are in.



EDIT: CD Beat me to it

[Cleo]

Thanks

That is pretty much what I thought but wasn't completely sure.

I actually am using the name servers over at DirectNic on one old domain that I don't really care about but also was wondering what would happen then as well.

It wasn't that I was actually worried at all, just got me thinking what if.

Now if I can just stop worrying about a meteorite hurting from space and vaporizing my host I could get a good night's sleep.

Then there is also that man digging a ditch with a backhoe…

[DarkEmber]

This should make you feel better:


Rodents LOVE to eat fiber optic cable Hopefully you can laugh at that.


its true! but you're fine. My guess is that with down lines and power outages, the next 24-36 hours could see a lot of general burps in the net. I wouldn't panic as you probably wouldn't be the only one affected.

[GeorgeTH]

Each region and each country has their own root servers -
that's why it takes so long for a domain move to filter through to the last corner of the planet (like your new server might be showing in the USA within 10 hours, but here in Australia only after 2-3 days, in Switzerland in a week from initial change).
Yes: the precise Swiss are the slowest! They even beat small Pacific Islands in that!

[Kath]

Originally posted by DarkEmber
This should make you feel better:


Rodents LOVE to eat fiber optic cable Hopefully you can laugh at that.


its true! but you're fine. My guess is that with down lines and power outages, the next 24-36 hours could see a lot of general burps in the net. I wouldn't panic as you probably wouldn't be the only one affected.

Speaking of burps on the 'net, I'm really surprised that we haven't seen a bigger dip in stats during this whole hurricane swarm. Apparently there aren't as many people in the affected region of that power outage that look @ porn as we thought. Last I'd heard from someone down there it was like 330k people affected - you'd think we'd notice something with that many people offline since Frances.

Hope those people get power back soon... that has to be getting awful with respect to living conditions and daily sanity!