Re: [ORG-discuss] DNS.WATCH disappears

2018-02-06 Thread Philip Hudson 
On 6 February 2018 at 12:40, John Connett  wrote:
>
> DNS.WATCH is back and there is a one line comment on their website: 
> "04.02.2017 - Some users affected: Some users were unable to reach both of 
> the DNS resolvers. This issue should now be resolved.".
>
> I'm taking it on trust that their DNS resolvers are "Fast, Free, Uncensored". 
> This was the first time I have noticed a loss of service from them. They have 
> proved much better than my ISP's (Virgin Media) DNS resolvers that default to 
> the (optional?) Virgin Media error service on a miss and block some sites.
>
> I am only using unencrypted DNS requests. I haven't yet investigated DNS over 
> TLS (RFC 7858). Much of my traffic is over a VPN so DNS requests via that 
> route are already encrypted.
>
> Any pointers to good practice on the choice and use of DNS resolvers would be 
> of interest.
>
> --
>
> John Connett 
>
> 
> From: org-discuss  on behalf 
> of Philip Hudson 
> Sent: 05 February 2018 08:48
> To: Open Rights Group open discussion list
> Subject: Re: [ORG-discuss] DNS.WATCH disappears
>
> The GMail web client "warns" that dns.watch is an "untrusted" site. Is this 
> straightforward censorship/repression on Google's part, or might there be 
> some substance to it? There's no link from GMail's warning to any kind of 
> explanation for the reasons (if any) for the warning. I don't recall ever 
> receiving this warning before, for any link. The warning itself looks 
> suspicious to me.
>
>
> On 4 February 2018 at 17:49, John Connett  wrote:
>
> I've been using DNS.WATCH (https://dns.watch) for some time. However, their 
> DNS servers seem to have disappeared. My first thought was that my ISP might 
> have blocked access. A check on Twitter suggests the problem was more 
> wide-spread.
>
> Anybody know what happened?
>
> Any recommendations for other free, uncensored and unlogged DNS servers?
>
> --
>
> John Connett 

It's a little strange that there is so little detail on the dns.watch
site. The one thing I gleaned was that they seem to be relying on
security (of operational continuity) by obscurity. I would find it
reassuring if their software's source code was freely visible.

In principle, other things being equal, a freedom-respecting DNS
(non-censoring, non-logging) must be faster, simply by virtue of not
spending processing cycles on extraneous matters. However, "other
things" includes a lot of technical variables like available
processing power, queuing algorithms, caching, bandwidth, contention,
latency, etc., and in real life those things are never equal.

DNS sucks. It's so often the Achilles heel of the Internet. IPv6 does
nothing to remedy this. Somebody at IETF must think DNS is a feature,
not a bug.

-- 
Phil Hudson  http://hudson-it.ddns.net
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) ID: 0x887DCA63

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Re: [ORG-discuss] DNS.WATCH disappears

2018-02-06 Thread John Connett 
DNS.WATCH is back and there is a one line comment on their website: "04.02.2017 
- Some users affected: Some users were unable to reach both of the DNS 
resolvers. This issue should now be resolved.".


I'm taking it on trust that their DNS resolvers are "Fast, Free, Uncensored". 
This was the first time I have noticed a loss of service from them. They have 
proved much better than my ISP's (Virgin Media) DNS resolvers that default to 
the (optional?) Virgin Media error service on a miss and block some sites.


I am only using unencrypted DNS requests. I haven't yet investigated DNS over 
TLS (RFC 7858). Much of my traffic is over a VPN so DNS requests via that route 
are already encrypted.


Any pointers to good practice on the choice and use of DNS resolvers would be 
of interest.

--

John Connett 


From: org-discuss  on behalf of 
Philip Hudson 
Sent: 05 February 2018 08:48
To: Open Rights Group open discussion list
Subject: Re: [ORG-discuss] DNS.WATCH disappears

The GMail web client "warns" that dns.watch is an "untrusted" site. Is this 
straightforward censorship/repression on Google's part, or might there be some 
substance to it? There's no link from GMail's warning to any kind of 
explanation for the reasons (if any) for the warning. I don't recall ever 
receiving this warning before, for any link. The warning itself looks 
suspicious to me.


On 4 February 2018 at 17:49, John Connett 
mailto:j...@skylon.demon.co.uk>> wrote:

I've been using DNS.WATCH (https://dns.watch) for some time. However, their DNS 
servers seem to have disappeared. My first thought was that my ISP might have 
blocked access. A check on Twitter suggests the problem was more wide-spread.


Anybody know what happened?


Any recommendations for other free, uncensored and unlogged DNS servers?

--

John Connett mailto:j...@skylon.demon.co.uk>>

Fast, free and uncensored. DNS.WATCH. - DNS.WATCH<https://dns.watch/>
dns.watch
DNS.WATCH is a fast, free and uncensored DNS-Server (or more specific, a DNS 
resolver). Service is provided world-wide and free-of-charge for everyone.



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Re: [ORG-discuss] DNS.WATCH disappears

2018-02-05 Thread Philip Hudson 
The GMail web client "warns" that dns.watch is an "untrusted" site. Is this
straightforward censorship/repression on Google's part, or might there be
some substance to it? There's no link from GMail's warning to any kind of
explanation for the reasons (if any) for the warning. I don't recall ever
receiving this warning before, for any link. The warning itself looks
suspicious to me.


On 4 February 2018 at 17:49, John Connett  wrote:

> I've been using DNS.WATCH (https://dns.watch) for some time. However,
> their DNS servers seem to have disappeared. My first thought was that my
> ISP might have blocked access. A check on Twitter suggests the problem was
> more wide-spread.
>
>
> Anybody know what happened?
>
>
> Any recommendations for other free, uncensored and unlogged DNS servers?
>
> --
>
> John Connett 
> Fast, free and uncensored. DNS.WATCH. - DNS.WATCH 
> dns.watch
> DNS.WATCH is a fast, free and uncensored DNS-Server (or more specific, a
> DNS resolver). Service is provided world-wide and free-of-charge for
> everyone.
>
>
> --
> Please support ORG's work - join and help fund our future:
> https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join
>
> To unsubscribe, send a blank email to org-discuss-leave@lists.
> openrightsgroup.org
> or use https://lists.openrightsgroup.org/listinfo/org-discuss
>



-- 
Phil Hudson  http://hudson-it.ddns.net
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) ID: 0x887DCA63
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Re: [ORG-discuss] DNS.WATCH disappears

2018-02-04 Thread Matt Harwood 
Hi John,

I can see this error on their homepage; you might be alright now? 

*04.02.2017 - Some users affected: Some users were unable to reach both
of the DNS resolvers. This issue should now be resolved.*
Thanks

Matt Harwood
IT, Web and Business Consultant

Phone: 0770 8215 222
Web: http://mattharwood.com
Email: m...@mattharwood.com



On Sun, 4 Feb 2018, at 5:49 PM, John Connett wrote:
> I've been using DNS.WATCH (https://dns.watch) for some time. However,
> their DNS servers seem to have disappeared. My first thought was that
> my ISP might have blocked access. A check on Twitter suggests the
> problem was more wide-spread.> 


> Anybody know what happened?


> 


> Any recommendations for other free, uncensored and unlogged DNS
> servers?> --


> John Connett 


> 
> Fast, free and uncensored. DNS.WATCH. - DNS.WATCH[1]
> dns.watch
> DNS.WATCH is a fast, free and uncensored DNS-Server (or more specific,
> a DNS resolver). Service is provided world-wide and free-of-charge for
> everyone.> 


> --
> Please support ORG's work - join and help fund our future:
> https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join
>  
> To unsubscribe, send a blank email to org-discuss-
> le...@lists.openrightsgroup.org> or use 
> https://lists.openrightsgroup.org/listinfo/org-discuss


Links:

  1. https://dns.watch/
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[ORG-discuss] DNS.WATCH disappears

2018-02-04 Thread John Connett 
I've been using DNS.WATCH (https://dns.watch) for some time. However, their DNS 
servers seem to have disappeared. My first thought was that my ISP might have 
blocked access. A check on Twitter suggests the problem was more wide-spread.


Anybody know what happened?


Any recommendations for other free, uncensored and unlogged DNS servers?

--

John Connett 

Fast, free and uncensored. DNS.WATCH. - DNS.WATCH
dns.watch
DNS.WATCH is a fast, free and uncensored DNS-Server (or more specific, a DNS 
resolver). Service is provided world-wide and free-of-charge for everyone.


-- 
Please support ORG's work - join and help fund our future:
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join

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