Dan York

Just a guy in Vermont trying to connect all the dots...

Author's posts

Mar 21

On Forgetting My Phone And Being Completely Disconnected…

On Forgetting My Phone And Being Completely Disconnected... by Dan York

Mar 20

Any Tips On How To Recover Data From An External Disk on Mac OS X?

Any Tips On How To Recover Data From An External Disk on Mac OS X? by Dan York

Mar 20

“Introduction To DNSSEC” Animated Videos Uploaded To YouTube

With the buzz over Google’s news about DNSSEC yesterday, we’ve seen a large surge of visitors to our DNSSEC-related resources and in the midst of that someone pointed out that the excellent introduction to DNSSEC video from Shinkuro, Inc., was no longer available on YouTube. Given that we work well with the Shinkuro team, we reached out to them and found out that while they maintain a copy of the video on their site, they had not been responsible for the YouTube version.  With their permission, we have now uploaded the video to our Deploy360 YouTube channel and can make it available for embedding and viewing:

The silent animated video was created back in 2006 but continues to be an excellent illustration of how the DNSSEC process works and the threats it protects again.  Thanks again to Shinkuro for making the video available.

As we note on our resource page about the video, there is also a second version that doesn’t include the text narration on the right side that some of you may find useful if you want to show a video about DNSSEC and provide your own narration.  (In fact… it might be an interesting exercise to take this second video and create versions with voice-overs in a number of different languages – if you do that and create a version, let us know and we’ll look at linking to your video.)

 

Mar 20

Video – DNSSEC Deployment: From End-Customer To Content (ION San Diego)

What do we need to do to get DNSSEC widely deployed? How can we help accelerate the deployment? What is the benefit to network operators and content providers?  These were among the questions answered in a highly interactive panel at the ION Conference San Diego on December 11, 2012. There was a good dialogue between the panelists and many questions asked by the attendees.  As a moderator, it was one of the most fun and interesting panels I’ve done in a while as we had no slides and just engaged in a conversation among people with a deep amount of experience with DNSSEC.

You can watch the video on YouTube or embedded here:

Moderator: Dan York (Internet Society)
Panelists: Jim Galvin (Afilias); Richard Lamb (ICANN); Cricket Liu (Infoblox); Roland M. van Rijswijk — Deij (SURFnet)

To get started with DNSSEC, you may want to view our DNSSEC Basics page.

Mar 19

Google Public DNS – DNSSEC Validation

Google logoGoogle provides DNSSEC validation through the use of their “Google Public DNS” servers.  If your local DNS resolvers do not perform DNSSEC validation, you can change your operating system to point to the following DNS servers operated by Google for either (or both) IPv4 and IPv6:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

2001:4860:4860::8888
2001:4860:4860::8844

Once configured, all future DNS queries will be resolved using these DNS servers and DNSSEC validation (if requested) will be performed by Google’s servers.  You will then benefit from the added protection of DNSSEC validation.

Typically this configuration is changed wherever you modify your network settings.  In Windows, this is usually in your “Control Panel” while in Mac OS X this will be in the Network part of your “System Preferences”.  For Linux and other operating systems the exact procedure will vary.

Note that there is one important caveat here - you have to request DNSSEC validation when you send the DNS query to Google’s Public DNS servers, i.e. they will only validate the DNS query if you request it.  To do that you need an application that supports DNSSEC.  For web browsers, there are add-ons and extensions for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox:

If you are an application developer, there are DNS developer libraries that support DNSSEC available in a wide range of programming languages so that you can add DNSSEC support to your application.

You can test DNSSEC validation by attempting to visit one of the deliberately misconfigured sites listed on our DNSSEC Tools page.

Google provides the following information about using their Public DNS service:

The addition of DNSSEC was announced in March 2013 and noted that Google Public DNS is currently “serving more than 130 billion DNS queries on average (peaking at 150 billion) from more than 70 million unique IP addresses each day.”

Note: To get the most value out of DNSSEC, you need to use a DNSSEC-validating resolver, and also sign your domains. If you have domains registered, learn about how your can sign your domains with DNSSEC using domain name registrars.

Mar 19

Huge News For Internet Security – Google Public DNS Is Now Performing DNSSEC Validation!

Google logoIn a huge step forward for Internet security today, Google announced that Google’s “Public DNS” service is now performing DNSSEC validation. What this means is that anyone using Google’s DNS servers (and anyone can do so – see below) can now get the increased security that comes with DNSSEC.  (Learn more about the value of DNSSEC on our DNSSEC Basics page.)

It also means that if you want the added security of DNSSEC, but your Internet Service Provider and local operating system don’t validate with DNSSEC,  you can simply change your operating system to point to the following DNS servers operated by Google for either (or both) IPv4 and IPv6:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

2001:4860:4860::8888
2001:4860:4860::8844

Once configured, all future DNS queries will be resolved using these DNS servers and DNSSEC validation will be performed by Google’s servers.  You will then benefit from the added protection of DNSSEC validation.  (Our resource page about Google Public DNS offers a few more pointers about configuration.)

Note that there is one important caveat here - you have to request DNSSEC validation when you send the DNS query to Google’s Public DNS servers, i.e. they will only validate the DNS query if you request it.  To do that you need an application that supports DNSSEC.  For web browsers, there are add-ons and extensions for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox:

If you are an application developer, there are DNS developer libraries that support DNSSEC available in a wide range of programming languages so that you can add DNSSEC support to your application.

In the announcement, Google’s Yunhong Gu noted that Google Public DNS is currently “serving more than 130 billion DNS queries on average (peaking at 150 billion) from more than 70 million unique IP addresses each day.”  As the article further notes:

“Effective deployment of DNSSEC requires action from both DNS resolvers and authoritative name servers. Resolvers, especially those of ISPs and other public resolvers, need to start validating DNS responses. Meanwhile, domain owners have to sign their domains. Today, about 1/3 of top-level domains have been signed, but most second-level domains remain unsigned. We encourage all involved parties to push DNSSEC deployment and further protect Internet users from DNS-based network intrusions.”

To that end, if you have domains registered, we strongly encourage you to learn about how your can sign your domains with DNSSEC using domain name registrars.  You can learn more about which top-level domains support DNSSEC on our DNSSEC Statistics page.

Google provides the following information about using their Public DNS service:

This move by Google to provide this DNSSEC validation is a great addition to the support for DNSSEC validation offered by large US ISPs such as Comcast (making DNSSEC validation available to their 18 million customers) as well as ISPs in a wide range of countries including Sweden, the Czech Republic and Brazil.

We look forward to seeing more public DNS providers and more ISPs turn on DNSSEC validation in their networks.  If you want to know more about what is involved with enabling DNSSEC validation on your network, including home and enterprise networks, this SURFnet white paper provides easy instructions for common DNS servers.

And in the meantime, if you don’t want to wait for your ISP and want to start getting the value in DNSSEC validation today, you now have the option of using Google’s public DNS servers!

 

Mar 18

FIR #695 – 3/18/13 – For Immediate Release

Steve Rubel interview forthcoming; Civility book review is up, discounts to FIR listeners for March conference; Quick News: the technologies that matter from SxSW according to Altimeter Group, study reveals growing comfort with smartphones worldwide, build a personal language phrasebook with Google Translate, Facebook likes can reveal personality traits; Ragan promo; News That Fits: a critical look at real-time marketing, Dan York's report, the demise of Google Reader and FeedDemon, Media Monitoring Minute from CustomScoop, listener comments, social-digital design news, Michael Netzley's Asia report, at least 10 mobile apps that help you maximuize conference attendance; music from Akaisky; and more.

Mar 15

Deploy360@IETF86: Day 5 – MIF, LISP, IPv6 Maintenance… and we’re done!

IETF LogoAnd so we reach Friday… the final day of the 86th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)  where it’s a short day that ends early and for us within the Deploy360 Programme only hits two of our topics:  IPv6 and Routing Resiliency/Security.

General information about participating remotely can be found on the Remote Participation page as well as the IETF86 agenda – specific info for the groups we are following is included below.

Here’s the preview of how we’re finishing this very busy week…

0900-1100 Friday, March 15

Multiple Interfaces (MIF) – Caribbean 1
Computers and devices today have the ability to connect to multiple networks simultaneously. Think about a laptop that can connect over WiFi or Ethernet – or a smartphone that can connect over WiFi or the cellular data network.  In those cases which network interface should the device use?  The MIF working group is working to document the existing practices and outline the issues involved in a world where multiple network availability is routine.

Location/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) – Caribbean 6
The LISP working group is defining a series of experimental RFCs around a new routing protocol designed to improve the scalability of the Internet’s routing infrastructure.

1120-1220 and 1230-1330  Friday, March 15

IPv6 Maintenance (6man) – Caribbean 4

The 6man working group “is responsible for the maintenance, upkeep, and advancement of the IPv6 protocol specifications and addressing architecture.” (quoting the charter)  This is where most of the work is happening to refine the IPv6 protocol itself, and today’s session should be quite a busy one.

With those sessions, we’ll be closing out our work at IETF 86 this week.  Some of us will then be moving into a meeting of the Internet Society Advisory Council happening on Friday afternoon before we head to the Orlando airport for our flights home.

It’s been a great week and we’ve made some significant progress on a number of fronts!

On a final note, this is the first time we’ve posted these daily previews – were they helpful?  We’d love to hear your comments – either in response to this post, on social networks or via our email or feedback form. (Thanks!)

P.S. For a broader view of the Internet Society’s interest in IETF 86 beyond that of just the topics we cover here at Deploy360, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 86′s Hot Topics“.

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Mar 14

Deploy360@IETF86: Day 4 – IPv6, DNSSEC and Routing, Oh, My!

IETF LogoDay 4 of the 86th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)  hits all of our Deploy360 topics – IPv6, DNSSEC and Routing Resiliency/Security.

General information about participating remotely can be found on the Remote Participation page as well as the IETF86 agenda – specific info for the groups we are following is included below.

0900-1130 Thursday, March 14

Homenet – Caribbean 3
This working group focuses on the evolving networking technology within and among relatively small “residential home” networks.

Interface to the Routing System (I2RS) – Caribbean 5
This is a new working group meeting for the first time that is seeking to define a publicly documented interface into the Internet’s routing system for applications to use. The best way to understand this new group would be to read draft-atlas-i2rs-problem-statement.

1300-1500 Thursday, March 14

Port Control Protocol (PCP) – Caribbean 6

The PCP working group is back again looking at how to enable communication from applications across middleboxes such as Network Address Translation (NAT) devices and firewalls for both IPv4 and IPv6.

Two other groups also may be of interest during this time block:

1510-1710 Thursday, March 14

Dynamic Host Configuration (dhc) – Caribbean 1
The DHC working group looks at DHCP and aspects of dynamically configuring IP addresses, both for IPv4 and IPv6, although the focus these days is on DHCPv6.

Operational Security  (opsec) – Caribbean 3
The OPSEC working group looks at the operational security concerns of IP networks. In this meeting there are 3 drafts focused on the security of IPv6 networks.

1730-1830 Thursday, March 14

Dynamic Host Configuration (dhc) – Caribbean 1
The DHC working group will continue to meet during this timeslot. Information is above.

DNS Operations  (DNSOP) – Caribbean 4
The DNSOP Working Group focuses on operational aspects of the Domain Name System and at this session has multiple drafts relating to DNSSEC.

1900-2100 Bits-N-Bites

This reception / networking time in Grand Sierra D should be an interesting chance to look at new technology from a number of sponsors.

2000-?  Alternative PKI Side Meeting, Boca 4

For those people interested in authentication and the public key infrastructure (PKI) aspects of the Web, there will be an “Alternative PKI Models Side Meeting” in room Boca 4, the IAB office, to talk about the requirements, goals and the design assumptions for a Web PKI.  Given our interest in DNSSEC and DANE, I (Dan) will be in this meeting to participate.

And after all of that… we’ll be trying to figure out how to get some food.  :-)

P.S. For a broader view of the Internet Society’s interest in IETF 86 beyond that of just the topics we cover here at Deploy360, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 86′s Hot Topics“.

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Mar 13

Deploy360@IETF86: Day 3 – Lots of IPv6 with a bit of Routing

For us within the Deploy360 Programme, Day 3 of the 86th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)  is all about IPv6, IPv6 and more IPv6, with a tiny bit of routing thrown in for something different.  Two of the “big” working groups related to IPv6 meet today.  The Sunset4 working group is looking at what happens when you really start shutting down IPv4, and the V6ops working group is back again with more discussion of operational guidance around IPv6.

General information about participating remotely can be found on the Remote Participation page as well as the IETF86 agenda – specific info for the groups we are following is included below.

0900-1130 Wednesday, March 13

Softwire – Caribbean 2
The Softwire discussion continues from Monday with more looking at ways to connect IPv4 networks across IPv6 networks and connecting IPv6 networks across IPv4 networks… both important aspects of encouraging IPv6 deployment.

Inter-Domain Routing (IDR) – Caribbean 5
The IDR working group supports the use of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) version 4 within IPv4 and IPv6 networks. The group works on maintenance of the BGP protocol as well as new extensions.

1300-1500 Wednesday, March 13

Sunsetting IPv4 (SUNSET4) – Caribbean 2

The Sunset4 working group is looking at issues around the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 and specifically at issues related to the shutting down of IPv4 and working in an IPv6-only environment. One important piece of work right now is related to developing a “gap analysis” between IPv4 and IPv6.

1510-1710 Wednesday, March 13

IPv6 Operations (V6ops) – Caribbean 5
Today v6ops will address several interesting drafts around design choices for IPv6 networks, security, operational guidelines for data centers and suggestions for the use of Unique Local Addresses.

1740-2010 Wednesday, March 13

IETF Operations and Administrative Plenary

While the operations and administrative plenary doesn’t usually directly relate to what we do here at Deploy360, it is a useful session to keep up with what changes are going on within the IETF as an organization and to learn about the current state of the organization.

And after that… we may try to have a team dinner, assuming we still have any energy left!  :-)

P.S. For a broader view of the Internet Society’s interest in IETF 86 beyond that of just the topics we cover here at Deploy360, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 86′s Hot Topics“.

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