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Welcome to DNS Down
Some History &
Etcetera
Most people don't know how The Net works,
they just click on links or use their email, with no regard as to how
it works, and that is as it should be, most folks don't know how a car
works, but they can still drive one.
In 1969, when Bolt, Beranek and
Newman, got the first IP packetizing and routing programs working
on old minicomputers, the ARPANet as we called it back then was born.
It was designed to bypass cities that had been hit by a nuclear
weapon! In other words, the Internet as we know it today, was
originally a Pentagon project for designing a communications system
that could automatically route data around destroyed cities. Back
then, all we had were 'circuit switched' networks, when you made a
phone call, you owned the 'copper' from one end to the other, for the
duration of the call. It doesn't work that way anymore, everything is
digital, everything is packetized data, and everything, phone, cell
phone, radio, and some TV, depends on the internet, there is NO WAY
for any entity, government or otherwise, to TAKE DOWN THE INTERNET
without taking down everything!. Oh, they can take down pieces and
parts, but not the whole thing. Its like a spiderweb that covers the
planet. They would then lose the utility of it for themselves, so, is
that even realistic? No, much easier to just 'block' those sites that
are politically 'unnecessary' or have 'hate' speech on them, or, pick
your reason. There is only one convenient way, and that's the DNS
system, the Internet's Phone Book.
The Internet, in the old days, did not
have a mechanism for 'discovery'. Today, you can type the name of a
web site into your browser, or click on a link, and it just goes
there, your computer 'discovers' the destination for the connection.
In the old days it didn't work like this. We had to program in what is
known as the IP Address of the computer we wanted to 'talk' to, it was
extremely cumbersome, thus the DNS system was born. (We didn't have a
WWW either, just file transfer and primitive email.)
Connections from your computer to websites or emails, are made to the
other computers IP Address, IP stands for Internet Protocol,
think of this as the Internet Phone number. You must know this number
in order to connect to it, so, how do you 'discover' that IP? In
order for this new system to work transparently, they invented
something called the DNS system, the Domain Name System. All web
sites, must be registered in a DNS server, somewhere. All DNS servers
are tied to 'root' servers, these root servers are few, and
vulnerable. This, DNS network, became, the Internet Phone Book. It
really is that simple.
When you type a website name into your
browser, your browser, asks the DNS system "what's the number for
this name?", your local DNS server defers to the root servers,
and it may bounce around the world searching, but eventually, it comes
back and provides the browser with the IP address of the website.
Then, the browser connects to the web server, and there you are, the
web page you asked for. Simple, fast, transparent. Some people,
will tell you that you can find out the IP address of a web site, and
just plug that into the browser, and it will bypass the DNS system,
and they are right, to a point. In the last few years, IP
addresses started become short, so system software engineers, figured
out a way to share IP addresses on one server, and run multiple web
sites on one computer, this is known as "virtual" servers.
Plugging in the IP for these type servers, (like the one you're
reading now), will not work, since there are multiple web sites
running on that IP address. This is overcome in new browsers, that
send the connection request with a Header, the header contains the
name of the site, and the web server figures out which virtual server
to connect you to. So why is any of this important?
If the UN, or a terrorist, or just plain
old system failure, of the DNS server that you depend on, goes down,
or a site is blocked, it will be done through the DNS system. It would
be an almost impossible task to take down all sites by IP address, if
they block one IP, it will take down everything on that server, and
its not necessary when all they have to do, is change a few servers,
the previously mentioned Root Servers. The Internet Phone Book will
simply be shorted out. Taking out all but the sites they want to run.
Simple, instant, effective. The Net, as far as most people are
concerned, would be down, except for the 'approved' sites. How many of
your favorite sites, do you think, would be left alive under an
'emergency information lockdown'?
DNSDown, was specifically designed to
install an internet bypass. It builds a mini phone book, a DNS cache
server, in your machine, based on our publicized 'Well Known Links'
plus your own bookmarks...taking advantage of the 'Old Way'... This
software, is being offered for free to the community, it is new, it is
still undergoing testing, ..we can't unblock IP blocks, but we can fight the fight
against free speech. We don't think this can be the only tool in the
box. This is only the beginning, if this idea takes
off, we hope to help build an UnderNet. This would be an alternate set
of privately controlled DNS servers, setup outside of the current
'chain of command'... The first step, is a way to build our own
private internet phone books...the next steps should be; alternate
registrar software and alternate root server setup, we cannot predict
when we can get this done, since we have to make a living somehow.
Hopefully, we will gain some motivated assistance...we are even
looking at ties to Freenet, and Tor networks. (so called anonymizer
networks)
On the home page of this site, you notice
the Well Known links, which have an IP based clickable link, as well
as the IP address / Real or Virt. The real addresses are directly
clickable, the Virt addresses MAY be virtual, and may only be accessible
by downloading the file and following the directions to
install it. The way this status is determined is not reliable as it
depends on a reverse look up, not all hosts maintain proper reverse
lookups, as it is not required. (Reverse lookup is simply the reverse
of a name lookup...'give me the name from this number'. ) The only
reliable way to use the well known links, is through the downloadable
file. They are there for reference, and provide a point of
sharing for everybody.
Stay tuned for future developments.
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