AMPR.ORG robot

[mikebw@bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

Brian Kantor writes:

BK> What do I have to do to get you people to stop messing up the database?

Updating DNS records really should not be a publicly accessible function.  In
most organizations, the DNS updates are done by a guru.  I have personally
taught DNS administration to many people who struggled to learn it for months
on their own, coming to regard it as closely related to witchcraft.

I once got into an actual argument with someone because I warned him not to
allow his server to claim that it was authoritative for some domain; he got all
upset because he insisted that there was no point to running a server if it had
to go out and ask for information all the time.  I had a rather public dispute
right here several weeks ago with someone who mistakenly thought that name
server were responsible for IP frame routing.

Just because you understand DNS does not mean that other people share your
level of expertise, Brian.  I have run into AMPR.ORG co-ordinators -- not
average users, but official co-ordinators -- who did not understand that they
were responsible for assigning specific domain names with IP addresses, but
were just handing out IP addresses and keeping a list of the callsigns of the
people to whom they were assigned.

Another problem which is primarily responsible for "has CNAME and other data"
errors is that most IP co-ordinators are running KA9Q NOS, which will let you
get away with that and other violations that BSD named will stop.  If you have
someone who got stuck into a volunteer position and learned the job on a half
unimplemented server, what would you expect?

To begin with, perhaps the AMPR.ORG robot needs to be a little smarter.  Why
not have it issue a warning reply if someone makes one of the common errors,
such as trying to define a CNAME record concurrently with other data or
appending an extra dot?

-- Mike