Verisign Speeds Up DNS Updates

Changeling writes "According to Matt Larson, a representative of VeriSign Naming and Directory Services, on September 8, 2004 Verisign will be switching from performing 2 updates per day of the .com and .net zones to performing updates every few seconds. According to Matt, 'After the rapid DNS update is implemented, the elapsed time from registrars' add or change operations to the visibility of those adds or changes in all 13 .com/.net authoritative name servers is expected to average less than five minutes." Full story can be found here."

I wonder what brought this on?

[rkz]

Its not like it kills anyone to wait a few hours for their dns changes to propagate?

it's not clear to me...

[rritterson]

I read the attached link. So, now, when you buy a domain it can take 12-18 hours for it to show up in Verisign's DNS servers. But in the future, it will show up in 5 minutes.

The same seems to be true with making DNS changes (new IP address, etc). However, doesn't that mean they will have to adjust the TTL value of the domains all the way down to 5 minutes, which will raise the number of queries skyhigh compared to what they are at now? (Thanks to caching)

Domain Name Portablity...

[LostCluster]

What this means on a business level is that it'll be much easier to move websites and mail servers from one provider to another because it'll take minutes rather than days to update the DNS pointers on the root servers. The only people who will be pointed to the old server after a few minutes will be those relying on old cached info.

So... the main barrier for switching web hosting providers has just fallen away.

As a consumer

[WebMasterP]

I'm not sure of the technical implications of this, but as a consumer of domain name registrations (usually consuming for clients who are too dumb to register their domains) this is very helpful.

Glad to see Verisign can do something right for a change.

On-Demand Update?

[powerpuffgirls]

Is it not possible to have a On-Demand update, so if a domain name's DNS has been changed, the owner can trigger an update request.

This might save unnecessary traffics, similar to a hub vs a switch?

Glad to see Verisign coming up to the times

[gonknet]

The same thing happened with .org domains a while ago. I was suprised a few weeks ago when I created a .org domain name, and within minutes I could use it. This DOES NOT speed up DNS changes, but it speeds up the initial creation and modification of domain records - a new domain, or change of a primary/secondary DNS server.

Re:Domain Name Portablity...

[LostCluster]

Just because a TTL is marked 48 hours doesn't mean all ISP DNS servers keep the cached information for 48 hours. Besides, those plainning a change could now lower their TTLs and actually have it mean something...

Re:Die script kiddie

[NanoGator]

"Will this put an end of DDOS attacks?"

I doubt it. If an ordinary web browser can find the site, then a zombie could too.

Re:Actually, IP Addresses COULD be portable...

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately one fuckwitted judge will not be permitted to single handedly bring down the internet.

Re:Err..

[BlueCup]

Say you have a website that recieves a lot of traffic, and you have banner ads on your website that generate revenue. For some of the people in this position a half a day can be a lot of money. Because of this, it causes a hinderance to switching hosts, and the company hosting has the ability to jack up prices unfairly, because you really don't have much of a choice in leaving.

Now, however, you can leave, it will mean lower hosting prices for everyone. Not to mention, having a process be more efficient is always a good thing, even if to the average person it seems to make no difference.

Re:Domain Name Portablity...

[Anonymous Coward]

can you explain exactly why we are going from a days to minutes improvement when switching ISPs?

Dns. I don't think that word means what you think it means.

hint: look at the real reason why it sometimes takes days when you make a change, and you'll realize that it has nothing to do with verisign or root servers.

Re:Thanks, Verisign...

[Neon Spiral Injector]

Do they change the IP of your DNS server? That's the only case where this would matter. Verisign doesn't control the data served from your DNS server. This change only covers the registration of new domains (they will become active in 5 minutes instead the next day). Or changes to your registration (like DNS servers).

You can lower the recommened caching timeouts on your own DNS server. So if your ISP changes the IP of your web server other's DNS servers will request the data from your's again sooner. But of course this can place a higher load on your DNS server.

What happens in 2038?!

[Mercury2k]

A quote from their site:

"these serial numbers are now based on UTC time encoded as the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch (00:00:00 GMT, 1 January 1970)"

Uhh, call me stupid, but isnt this the kind of moronic thinking thats gonna nail us AGAIN in 2038 when 32bit epoch dates roll over?! Does anyone know if bind can handle 64bit numbers for serials? Or is this just another screwup waiting to be discovered in 2037 just before the internet stops working cause all the DNS servers cant handle > 32bit ;)

With everything else as instant as it is...

[clifgriffin]

This only makes sense. This shouldn't be the end though, why does DNS take so long to propogate? Can't we fix this?