January 2014 archive

Jan 04

Weekend Project: Find Out If Your Domain Name Registrar Supports DNSSEC – And Request It If They Don’t

dnssecLooking for a quick weekend project that could help make the Internet more secure?

Find out if the registrar you use for your domain name(s) supports DNSSEC – and if not, file a bug report or feature request asking them when they will support DNSSEC.  We have some information about some of the registrars that support DNSSEC and ICANN has a longer list of registrars that support DNSSEC, but there are many more registrars out there who are not yet on that list.

We’ve heard repeatedly from registrars that they haven’t implemented DNSSEC because “no one is asking for it.”

So let’s change that.

Let’s make sure as many registrars as possible hear from their customers that we want a more secure Internet.

Thanks!

Jan 04

TDYR #059 – Serendipity, Discovery And The Role Of Big-Box Book Stores

A trip today to a "big box" bookstore reminded me of the power of bookstores to help us discover authors and books... and overwhelmed me a bit in the process...

Jan 03

TDYR #058 – How Do iPhone GPS Running Apps Work On A Treadmill?

TDYR #058 - How Do iPhone GPS Running Apps Work On A Treadmill? by Dan York

Jan 03

Whitepaper: Balancing IP Address Distribution and Decentralization

A Fine BalanceHave you ever wondered about how IP addresses get distributed to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other network operators to give out to you in your home or office?  Regardless of whether for IPv6 or legacy IPv4 addresses, would you like to know more about how that process actually works?

In April 2013, some of our colleagues here at the Internet Society authored a white paper exploring these exact topics. Titled “A Fine Balance: Internet number resource distribution and de-centralisation“, the document has this for an executive summary:

Internet number resources (IP addresses and AS numbers) are distributed to resource users through processes that have evolved over time. Although initially centralised, the processes of policy formation and resource distribution have more recently been devolved to regional organisations. In addition, technology evolution has been embraced. IPv4 allocations have successfully evolved to meet the needs of the global community and IPv6 allocations, starting from a  clean slate, are now able to leverage this successful global platform. This decentralisation is a direct consequence of the expansion of the Internet to cover all regions of the globe and it serves a number of important functions. Decentralisation is not an end in itself however, and experience shows us that a careful balance and coordination are needed to ensure that the over-riding objectives of aggregation, conservation and registration continue to be met.

The commitment between the resource distributors and the resource users is bidirectional, and resource distribution is essentially an operational engineering  function that requires careful co-ordination and consensus building to succeed.Network operators have very strong incentives to partner with operationally  knowledgeable organisations when obtaining numbering resources and will  choose not to interconnect with networks that disregard this reality. As a  consequence, proposals either to further centralise or de-centralise the  processes whereby Internet numbering resources are distributed should be given  very careful consideration indeed, with maintenance of the fine balance that has  served the community well to date uppermost in our minds.

The document goes on to explain how IP address allocation began and how it evolved to the current model.  It is well worth a read for anyone seeking to better understand how the Internet really works at an operational level.

Jan 02

Cancer – The Scourge That Keeps On Taking

Norriscotton keeneToday the terrible beast that is cancer once again rears its ugly head in our life. My sister-in-law begins her chemotherapy today at our local cancer center - and our thoughts are certainly with her and her family as they begin this unwelcome process. My wife's brother, Scott, has rather eloquently written his thoughts online in his own unique style: The Bad News; It’s Cancer. For me, I just remember the tedious and endless monotony of chemo - and then, of course, all of the effects on my wife... some of which she still suffers from two years after ending her chemo treatments in her own fight against breast cancer.

There is an anger and a frustration that is hard to put into words.

The optimist in me of course is thrilled that such treatments are available so that my sister-in-law might beat back the beast and live a longer life.

But that optimism is balanced by a frustration that battling cancer seems to be the story of one sledgehammer after another and another... for all the millions of dollars we're spending on cancer research, the weapons and treatment we have still seem so crude.

Yes, I know intellectually that the treatments have come so far from what they used to be. I know that such research takes time and trials and more time and more trials before the benefits can be widely seen.

But emotionally I want the scanner device out of some sci-fi show that can just scan down the body, find the cancer cells and destroy them.

We're not there yet. Maybe we'll never get there.

And so we fight the battle with the weapons we have, crude as they are.

And my sister-in-law sits there with an IV drip slowly bringing incredibly toxic chemicals into her body...

Meanwhile, another friend around my age from Burlington, VT, fights a liver cancer that is not responding to treatment... and at this point may give him less than a year to live...

Meanwhile, my wife learned through Facebook that a sister of a friend is apparently entering into her final days of life after an aggressive form of breast cancer...

Meanwhile, someone else we know just finished up her four months of chemo in dealing with breast cancer...

Meanwhile... ... meanwhile... ...

Yes, all we can do is keep going on... putting one foot in front of the other and living out each day...

But still, there are days when all you want to do is rage against the scourge that is ravishing so many wonderful people out there.

Cancer - the scourge that keeps on taking.

An audio version of this post is available as an episode in my "The Dan York Report" podcast:

Jan 02

TDYR #057 – Cancer, The Scourge That Keeps On Taking

Today was a hard day as a family member began her course of chemotherapy... in this episode I mostly voice my frustration with this beast that has affected so many lives. A written version: http://danyork.com/2014/01/cancer-the-scourge-that-keeps-on-taking.html

Jan 02

Video: Cisco’s Hangout on “Enabling IPv6 In Your Network”

It’s the second day of 2014. Are you at work looking to get started with deploying IPv6 in your network? Or are you at home on holiday break and looking for something educational to watch online?  Was deploying IPv6 one of your New Year’s Resolutions?

If so, you might be interested in watching this Google+ Hangout recorded by the folks at Cisco Systems in December 2013 where Cisco’s Harpreet Singh provided an outline of what changes with IPv6, what you need to think about in your network, what kind of planning you need to do for the migration and similar topics.  While the video is of course from a vendor of networking equipment, the session and slides do provide a good general overview of IPv6 transition issues. Great to see Cisco making these kinds of sessions available!

Jan 01

TDYR #056 – My Four Words For 2014

As has been my practice since 2010, my first blog post of the year was about certain words that I intend to be areas of focus in my personal life... the full post can be found here: http://danyork.com/2014/01/my-four-words-for-2014.html

Jan 01

My Four Words For 2014

2014fourwordsAs has been my custom now for the past few years, I like to start my writing off in a new year with a post about a few "words" that I intend to use as guides for the year. They aren't "resolutions" as much as they are areas of my personal life in which I aspire to be active this year. In previous years (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010) I've chosen three words, following a meme started by Chris Brogan many years ago.

This year, I found myself struggling to reduce four words down to three... and finally said "Hey, wait a minute, it's MY blog... if I want to have four words this year, I can! ;-)" And so... here is my list for 2014...

RUNNING

Those following my writing here have known that running became an important part of my life over the last 3.5 years. I even recorded an audio commentary last year (while running) about how important it is to me.

But I suffered a real crisis in confidence - and enjoyment - when I ran an extremely frustrating half-marathon in September. I never wrote a response to my post about preparing to run the half-marathon... rather than "third time is a charm", it was more "three strikes and you're out!"

I'll write some other time about that particular race and the resulting mental fallout, but suffice it to say that I've had a hard time getting back out there. I know intellectually that I just need to get back out there and do it... and in 2014 I intend to once again make running a core part of a healthy lifestyle!

And maybe I'll get to where I do try another half-marathon.... (but probably at a cooler time of year).

UPDATE: - I started off the year on a good note here by running a 5K on New Year's Day on our treadmill that we'd relocated to our basement. It was fine as long as I kept my head straight up so that it stays between the rafters!

RELIGION

You wouldn't know it from any of my online writing or any of my activities on social networks, but religion and spirituality are topics I'm incredibly passionate about and care deeply about. My father is a (now retired) Methodist minister, as was his father before him, and so I grew up deeply steeped in a progressive Christian church.

Yes, I am a "preacher's kid." :-)

When I was in my late teens and into college I had a severe falling out with the Methodist faith of my fathers and spent a significant amount of time searching for a religious community where I could belong. Like anything I do, I plunged in and dived deeply into reading, visiting churches, etc.... but never found anything until a random invitation from a friend some 20+ years ago introduced me to the world of Unitarian Universalism. Many years (and many UU churches) later, I'm president of the board of trustees of our local Keene UU Church and in fact led the worship service there last Sunday giving a sermon/message about the challenges of being open about religion in the age of Facebook.

But you wouldn't know any of this from what I write and post online. There are thousands of blog posts online from me since 2000 and many thousand tweets/updates/posts on social media...

... but pretty much NONE of them say ANYTHING about religion.

There are a lot of reasons for WHY I have been silent about the religious side of my life in my online activity... and I'll write a post about that at some point (probably soon).

But I've realized that in being silent and hiding this aspect of myself I'm not really letting myself be truly whole.

So I'm going to start... I've been letting pieces of that side of me leak out into Facebook lately. THIS blog post is a huge step for me.

I'm not going to be "in your face" about religion or anything (that's not the UU way! ;-) ). But I'm going to stop hiding that side of me. I will treat it instead just as yet another facet of the complicated person that I am (and that we all are).

We'll see... this will, in all honesty, be a bit challenging for me... but is an area I'd like to grow personally.

AUDIO

In a change from past years, I'm carrying a word over from the previous year. I did a great amount with audio in 2013, but in 2014 I intend to do more. I want to move forward with "FIR On Technology" and have a number of interviews in mind. I want to bring back Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast for some interviews... and I'm hoping to do more audio components in my daily work with the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme.

I'm excited... and "stay tuned" has never been more appropriate!

STRATEGY

Finally, there is an exquisite irony to me that while my job title at the Internet Society is "Senior Content Strategist", my own personal content online is severely lacking a strategy. I am inconsistently writing across 8 or 9 different places online - and I'm adding more sites like the Monadnock Curling Club... and there are a few other projects in the works.

Yes, this is a bit of a case of the proverbial "cobbler's shoes", but in 2014 I'd like to pull some of this together a bit more and have a bit more discipline about what I'm doing with all my online content. I'm at least aggregating my online content at my danyork.me site, but this year I want to do more with getting more consistent with the creation of content.

That's my list for 2014. What about you?

What are you going to do this year with your one wild and precious life?

An audio version of this post is available on in my "The Dan York Report" podcast:

Jan 01

Your New Year’s Resolution for 2014 – Does It Include IPv6, DNSSEC or BGP Security?

2014Happy New Year! Welcome to 2014! We’re VERY excited for this next year and look forward to bringing you another year of the best in real-world deployment information to help you make your networks better, faster, more complete and more secure!  We’ll be continually adding more resources about IPv6, DNSSEC and routing security - and we may add in some more topics, too!  We’ll be holding ION conferences around the world. We’ll be writing on our blog and posting video, audio, slides and more to all our various sites and services. We’ll be speaking and participating at events from ICANN, IETF and many, many more.

We’re looking forward to 2014 being a great year!

How about you?  What are your plans for 2014?  Have you made a New Year’s Resolution yet?  If so, does it include IPv6, DNSSEC or BGP security?

If not, we’d encourage you to consider one of these as a goal for 2014:

  • Implement IPv6 within your office (or home) network. View our IPv6 resources for ideas.
  • Set up your DNS resolvers to perform DNSSEC validation – there’s a great whitepaper that shows how easy this is!

Those are just a few thoughts… we could keep on going, but you get the idea – let’s make 2014 the year that IPv6 and DNSSEC get deployed!

What are you going to do?  And how can we help you?

Happy New Year!