Dr Eberhard W Lisse a �crit:
> the zone file sits on grumpy.net.na as per an agreement with a local
> ISP. Whether they give me physical write access is not the issue,
> rather that I decide what gets written into it.
The average client of an ISP, that is, the average domain name holder,
cannot tell the ISP what to put into their zone file. I've had trouble with
every single one of the five ISPs I've used because of this, and I've heard
the same stories from everyone I know. The same exact story from every
single domain name holder I know: that the ISP will NOT do what the client
asks, when it's a matter of changing the zone file.
Your situation or that of Roeland Meyer or John Reynolds has nothing to do
with this. You are not average domain name holders. Far from it. This
discussion is about average domain name holders. So your personal experience
as the NIC for .NA doesn't apply here.
> Write permission means the person who decides on the changes being
> made (Admin Contact or Technical Contact), not the person that
> actually makes the changes (staff member).
No sir. Not true. Write permission means that you, not somebody else, but
YOU, can go in and change what's in that file. It doesn't mean that you have
to go and convince soneone else, a techie who doesn't give a damn about
setting up the service that he agreed to give you, because after you paid
the year's fees he decided not to bother. It means that you don't have to
deal with that, but can go in and do it yourself. If you know how. Which the
end-users don't.
> Or take iciiu.org for example. ICIIU has probably a contract with
> perfekt.net. If you tell them you want another secondary (after making
> arrangements) they would enter the change and reload).
Who knows what they would do? The ISPs do what they want. They don't have to
tell the client. And the client doesn't know enough, or doesn't have access,
and can't check on what the ISP does or change it. And these people are
going to tell us users that they represent our interests?
> It's not the issue who knows what. It's the issue
> who has the right to make the decison. *IN PRACTICE* most often this
> is delegated to the Technical Contact.
It's not delegated to the tech contact. It's arrogated by the tech contact.
There's a big, big difference. The only ISP who lets the client have control
over the zone file is pgmedia, where the client is not only the admin and
billing contacts but also the tech contact, and there is a web-based,
user-friendly GUI for altering the RRs in the zone file. With other ISPs,
it's the tech who decides what goes into file. And his boss, the owner of
the ISP, won't tell him to put in a change or a new service for the client
unless he wants to. The client has nothing to do with it. I have been the
constant subject of this extortion, at five ISPs, and everyone I know has,
too.
> Moving the zone file means downloading a copy thereof, uploading it to
> the new server, making appropriate changes, reloading the server,
> informing NSI of the change, waiting for the delegation to change to
> the new server and then removing the old one altogether.
Yeah? And how does the average domain name holder accomplish this? Again,
we're not talking about computer programmers or hackers here, we're talking
about people who do business or some other activity on the Web. How do they
download a copy of the zone file that's got their records in it? There are
to my knowledge no user-friendly interfaces between zone files on a Unix
machine and Windows, not that allow me to download the zone file, change it,
and reload it onto another server via the Internet. If you know of a program
that will let me do that, I would be VERY happy to hear about it.
