How Registrant down affect our DNS?

Hi everyone,

Our domain name is back up (including email and web service) after one and a
half day down. For a City, this is really not acceptable. The reason we are
down because the Registrant, who own our domain name, had internet down. But
we host our own external DNS server.

I would like to ask how this problem happens... and how to work around? Any
redundant way we can try if we want to stick with that "s_cker"?

Finally, we may consider to change our domain name... which is already tie
up with our Active Directory...how do we migrate from one domain name to
another one?

Thank you for your help!

Bobson

"Bobson" <> wrote in message
news:139139EB-812D-495B-9F91-...
> Hi everyone,
>
> Our domain name is back up (including email and web service) after one and
> a
> half day down. For a City, this is really not acceptable. The reason we
> are
> down because the Registrant, who own our domain name, had internet down.
> But
> we host our own external DNS server.
>
> I would like to ask how this problem happens... and how to work around?
> Any
> redundant way we can try if we want to stick with that "s_cker"?
>
> Finally, we may consider to change our domain name... which is already tie
> up with our Active Directory...how do we migrate from one domain name to
> another one?
>
> Thank you for your help!
>
> Bobson


Who's your provider? Does it happen often?

For a city, I would imagine that you would have your own infrastructure in
place, with your own Exchange mail server, web server, a fast internet line
from a reliable provider (not cable), such as Verizon, Quest, etc. Suprising
to hear a (major?) city is relying on hosting their private and sensitive
email with some outside source.

How to prevent it? Go with a reliable provider, or better, as I implied, to
host it yourself with your own IT department.

But then again, if a small city, township, borough, etc, budget may not be
allowing such a thing, which I can understand. But I would honestly consider
bringing everything in-house for security purposes.

As for your AD name to be the same as the external domain, no problem, many
installations are like that. No need to migrate for such a reason. If you
are experiencing any problems regarding this scenario, please post them, and
we can offer suggestions to overcome them. They are probably just simple
administrative tasks needed to be made to accomodate the scenario.

--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum to benefit from collaboration
among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.

Ace Fekay, MCT, MCTS Exchange, MCSE, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSA Messaging
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Hi Ace Fekay,

Thank you for your prompt response. I am sorry if I misled you.

Our domain name does not belong to us, and owned by a consultant (actually a
registrant). We jsut "rent" the name from him.

We have our own infrastructure such as external DNS (primary), email, web
server..etc.

Sorry if I mislead you... I should have deleted (including email and web)
from my first message.

Bobson





"Ace Fekay [MCT]" wrote:

> "Bobson" <> wrote in message
> news:139139EB-812D-495B-9F91-...
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > Our domain name is back up (including email and web service) after one and
> > a
> > half day down. For a City, this is really not acceptable. The reason we
> > are
> > down because the Registrant, who own our domain name, had internet down.
> > But
> > we host our own external DNS server.
> >
> > I would like to ask how this problem happens... and how to work around?
> > Any
> > redundant way we can try if we want to stick with that "s_cker"?
> >
> > Finally, we may consider to change our domain name... which is already tie
> > up with our Active Directory...how do we migrate from one domain name to
> > another one?
> >
> > Thank you for your help!
> >
> > Bobson
>
>
> Who's your provider? Does it happen often?
>
> For a city, I would imagine that you would have your own infrastructure in
> place, with your own Exchange mail server, web server, a fast internet line
> from a reliable provider (not cable), such as Verizon, Quest, etc. Suprising
> to hear a (major?) city is relying on hosting their private and sensitive
> email with some outside source.
>
> How to prevent it? Go with a reliable provider, or better, as I implied, to
> host it yourself with your own IT department.
>
> But then again, if a small city, township, borough, etc, budget may not be
> allowing such a thing, which I can understand. But I would honestly consider
> bringing everything in-house for security purposes.
>
> As for your AD name to be the same as the external domain, no problem, many
> installations are like that. No need to migrate for such a reason. If you
> are experiencing any problems regarding this scenario, please post them, and
> we can offer suggestions to overcome them. They are probably just simple
> administrative tasks needed to be made to accomodate the scenario.
>
> --
> Ace
>
> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
> confers no rights.
>
> Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum to benefit from collaboration
> among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.
>
> Ace Fekay, MCT, MCTS Exchange, MCSE, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSA Messaging
> Microsoft Certified Trainer
>
> For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
> http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
>
>

On 8/13/2009 2:04 PM, Bobson wrote:
> Our domain name does not belong to us, and owned by a consultant
> (actually a registrant). We jsut "rent" the name from him.

If the consultant is worth their while, they should have no objection to
selling the domain to you out right at a reasonable price (2 - 5 years
worth of rent?).

> We have our own infrastructure such as external DNS (primary), email,
> web server..etc.

If you have your own infrastructure, including external DNS, how did the
consultant's loss of internet take you down? Is the world looking at
the consultant as a secondary who is really pulling from your server(s)?
Is email flowing through the consultant before flowing in to your
server(s)?



Grant. . . .

"Bobson" <> wrote in message
news:48452368-7703-4391-B98D-...
> Hi Ace Fekay,
>
> Thank you for your prompt response. I am sorry if I misled you.
>
> Our domain name does not belong to us, and owned by a consultant (actually
> a
> registrant). We jsut "rent" the name from him.
>
> We have our own infrastructure such as external DNS (primary), email, web
> server..etc.
>
> Sorry if I mislead you... I should have deleted (including email and web)
> from my first message.
>
> Bobson
>
>
Ok, that clears some of it up, but still, it is YOUR or the City's domain
name, that should be owned by the city. I agree with Grant that the
consultant should relinquent the name to your city, and registered under the
city's charter.

If you have your own infrastructure in place, meaning it is actually being
hosted physically under your ownership in an IT center, then the line is the
issue. Are you saying the consultant also owns that, or is he the SOA of
your public domain name (meaning he is actually hosting the domain name on
his own servers somewhere else and that went down), and your DNS servers are
not?

Reliability = control of your own resources. Move everything so you have
control, including domain ownership.

Ace

Hi Ace and Grant,

Thank you for your both response.

First, how do I know which has the SOA of the zone. If I get on my external
dns, the soa record is my dns server itself. Or how do I determine who is the
SOA?

Also, the consultant does not host any Domain Name servers for us, and does
not own our network infrastructure here. But sure he owns the domain name.

The DNS server I have in our own server room is the primary (how do I
recognize which server is primary or secondary?)

In fact, this is not the first time...almost once a year since I worked here
4 years ago. But this time is the longest downtime, and the worst. Their
service is no good too! They never contact you for the down time, and what
causing it.

So may you guess why their internet down would really affect us? I really
cannot explain this well to my supervisor.

Finally, I may not want to mention their name here...you know US always like
"law sues"

But no matter what, thank you very much for your responses!

Bobson



"Ace Fekay [MCT]" wrote:

> "Bobson" <> wrote in message
> news:48452368-7703-4391-B98D-...
> > Hi Ace Fekay,
> >
> > Thank you for your prompt response. I am sorry if I misled you.
> >
> > Our domain name does not belong to us, and owned by a consultant (actually
> > a
> > registrant). We jsut "rent" the name from him.
> >
> > We have our own infrastructure such as external DNS (primary), email, web
> > server..etc.
> >
> > Sorry if I mislead you... I should have deleted (including email and web)
> > from my first message.
> >
> > Bobson
> >
> >
> Ok, that clears some of it up, but still, it is YOUR or the City's domain
> name, that should be owned by the city. I agree with Grant that the
> consultant should relinquent the name to your city, and registered under the
> city's charter.
>
> If you have your own infrastructure in place, meaning it is actually being
> hosted physically under your ownership in an IT center, then the line is the
> issue. Are you saying the consultant also owns that, or is he the SOA of
> your public domain name (meaning he is actually hosting the domain name on
> his own servers somewhere else and that went down), and your DNS servers are
> not?
>
> Reliability = control of your own resources. Move everything so you have
> control, including domain ownership.
>
> Ace
>
>
>
>
>

"Bobson" <> wrote in message
news:B720652A-CF44-4C7D-A9D6-...
> Hi Ace and Grant,
>
> Thank you for your both response.
>
> First, how do I know which has the SOA of the zone. If I get on my
> external
> dns, the soa record is my dns server itself. Or how do I determine who is
> the
> SOA?
>
> Also, the consultant does not host any Domain Name servers for us, and
> does
> not own our network infrastructure here. But sure he owns the domain name.
>
> The DNS server I have in our own server room is the primary (how do I
> recognize which server is primary or secondary?)
>
> In fact, this is not the first time...almost once a year since I worked
> here
> 4 years ago. But this time is the longest downtime, and the worst. Their
> service is no good too! They never contact you for the down time, and what
> causing it.
>
> So may you guess why their internet down would really affect us? I really
> cannot explain this well to my supervisor.
>
> Finally, I may not want to mention their name here...you know US always
> like
> "law sues"
>
> But no matter what, thank you very much for your responses!
>
> Bobson
>
>


Oh, ok, so you are hosting your own public domain zone on your own DNS
servers. I assume you have a minimum of two DNS servers to host your public
zone and record (as per the Registrar's minimal requirements).

I also assume these DNS servers are not the same ones being used for your
internal Active Directory infrastructure.

To find which DNS servers are SOA for your *public* zone, you can use
nslookup. Run the following commands. The 'server 4.2.2.2' command makes it
use an external DNS server to perform the query, and not your internal DNS,
so you can get an accurate external result.
===========
nslookup
> server 4.2.2.2
> set q=soa
> yourdomain.com

(the results are displayed here)

And then find your nameservers:

> set q=ns
> yourdomain.com

(the results are displayed here)
===========

I believe you mentioned your public website is hosted elsewhere, such as a
hosting company.

What will happen if your line goes down, is when people on the internet try
to get to it, they won't be able to resolve the IP address in order to
connect. If the website is hosted externally at a hosting company, it will
still be up and running, but no one can get to it because your public DNS
servers are not accessible, therefore no one can resolve the name
(www.yourcityname.com) to the web server's IP address.

If the webserver is hosted internally at your site, people won't be able to
resolve the name to IP, nor get to it anyway because the line is down.

Either way, I would request the consultant to make a registrant name change
to be put into your city's name, with a contact name from the city. It
belongs to the city.

As far as the line, I believe you are saying your line is actually being
rented/leased from your consultant's company? Whomever it is, if the line
goes down with most DS (digital services) line providers, such as T1, T3 or
even fiber digital (not cable, DSL or FIOS), they usually call a predefined
contact number at your location to inform you and their plans on repairing
it with a timeline when they believe it will be up again. If your line is a
T1, T3, etc, this is normal procedure, however if its DSL, cable or FIOS, (I
kind of doubt it's FIOS since FIOS is a recent implementation), they don;t
do that. You would wind up calling saying the line is down, asking why, you
need someone to fix it, and asking them how long it will take.

Ace