Dan York

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

Author's posts

Mar 22

How Do We Connect Everyone to the Internet? An IETF 101 Technical Plenary

How do we connect everyone, everywhere, to the Internet? What role do “community networks” play in helping connect more people? How can we best use wireless spectrum and what are the issues with that? How can satellites fit into the picture? And what is the state of satellite technology? And what about the role of “space lasers”?

All that and more was the subject of yesterday’s featured panel at the Technical Plenary at IETF 101 in London.

Interested to learn more? Watch/listen to the Global Access to the Internet for All (GAIA) session TODAY (22 March) at 1:30pm UTC:
– Agenda
– Video/slides/chat
– Audio-only

Organized by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), the panel was moderated by our Jane Coffin and included these speakers:

  • Leandro Navarro Moldes, Associate Professor, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (SLIDES)
  • Steve Song, Wireless Spectrum Research Associate, Network Startup Resource Center (SLIDES)
  • Jonathan Brewer, Consulting Engineer, Telco2 Limited (SLIDES)

You can watch the recording of the session at:

The session began with Leandro Moldes outlining how half the world is still not connected to the Internet and is not able to benefit from all the opportunities. He explored the reasons why, the challenges with business models, and the opportunities to improve the situation. He spoke about the different types of community networks and the need for small providers to cooperate and collaborate to be most effective.

Next Steve Song opened with the provocative question – do we care more about connecting refrigerators than poor people? He went on to talk about the impact of fiber optic connections in Africa – and then explained both the opportunities and challenges of using radio spectrum for communication. Steve discussed the economics and politics of spectrum allocation and finished looking at some of the upcoming next generation technologies. A key message: access diversity is critical!

Finally, Jonathan Brewer provided a view on satellite options for Internet access. He outlined typical orbits and latencies; spoke about different architectures and common deployment scenarios; and explained different satellite spectrum bands and then pros and cons. We learned about “rain fade” and other terms. He also offered three newer commercial ventures as examples of the exciting activities in the space sector.

After the panelists spoke, Jane opened the floor to questions. Attendees asked about the diversity of options, the need to include more people and regions, and more. And yes, there was a discussion about “space lasers” and how some of these new networks are building mesh networks based on using lasers between satellites.

It was an educational session that offered many ideas for how to connect the rest of the world.

If you would like to learn more and find out how to help:

Image credit: Stonehouse Photographic

The post How Do We Connect Everyone to the Internet? An IETF 101 Technical Plenary appeared first on Internet Society.

Mar 16

Rough Guide to IETF 101: DNSSEC, DANE, DNS Security and Privacy

It’s going to be a crazy busy week in London next week in the world of DNS security and privacy! As part of our Rough Guide to IETF 101, here’s a quick view on what’s happening in the world of DNS.  (See the full agenda online for everything else.)

IETF 101 Hackathon

As usual, there will be a good-sized “DNS team” at the IETF 101 Hackathon starting tomorrow. The IETF 101 Hackathon wiki outlines the work (scroll down to see it). Major security/privacy projects include:

  • Implementing some of the initial ideas for DNS privacy communication between DNS resolvers and authoritative servers.
  • Implementation and testing of the drafts related to DNS-over-HTTPS (from the new DOH working group).
  • Work on DANE authentication within systems using the DNS Privacy (DPRIVE) mechanisms.

Anyone is welcome to join us for part or all of that event.

Thursday Sponsor Lunch about DNSSEC Root Key Rollover

On Thursday, March 22, at 12:30 UTC, ICANN CTO David Conrad will speak on “Rolling the DNS Root Key Based on Input from Many ICANN Communities“. As the abstract notes, he’ll be talking about how ICANN got to where it is today with the Root KSK Rollover – and about the open comment period on the plan to roll the KSK in October 2018.

David’s session will be streamed live for anyone wishing to view remotely.

DNS Operations (DNSOP)

The DNS sessions at IETF 101 really begin on Tuesday, March 20, with the DNS Operations (DNSOP) Working Group from 15:50 – 18:20 UTC. Several of the drafts under discussion will relate to the Root KSK Rollover and how to better automate and monitor key rollovers. DNSOP also meets on Thursday, March 22, from 18:10-19:10, where one draft of great interest will be draft-huque-dnsop-multi-provider-dnssec. This document explores how to deploy DNSSEC in environments where multiple DNS providers are in use. As per usual, given the critical role DNS plays, the DNSOP agenda has many other drafts up for discussion and action.

DNS PRIVate Exchange (DPRIVE)

The DPRIVE working group meets Wednesday afternoon from 13:30-15:00 UTC.  As shown on the agenda, there will be two major blocks of discussion. First, Sara Dickinson will offer recommendations for best current practices for people operating DNS privacy servers. This builds off of the excellent work she and others have been doing within the DNS Privacy Project.

The second major discussion area will involve Stephane Bortzmeyer discussing how to add privacy to the communication between a DNS recursive resolver and the authoritative DNS server for a given domain.  When the DPRIVE working group was first chartered, the discussion was whether to focus on the privacy/confidentiality between a stub resolver and the local recursive resolver; or between the recursive resolver and authoritative server; or both. The discussion was to focus on the stub-to-recursive-resolver connection – and that is now basically done from a standards perspective. So Stephane is looking to move the group on into the next phase of privacy. As a result, the session will also include a discussion around re-chartering the DPRIVE Working Group to work on this next stage of work.

Extensions for Scalable DNS Service Discovery (DNSSD)

On a similar privacy theme, the DNSSD Working Group will meet Thursday morning from 9:30-12:00 UTC and include a significant block of time discussing privacy and confidentiality.  DNSSD focuses on how to make device discovery easier across multiple networks. For instance, helping you find available printers on not just your own network, but also on other networks to which your network is connected. However in doing so the current mechanisms expose a great deal of information. draft-ietf-dnssd-privacy-03 and several related drafts explore how to add privacy protection to this mechanism. The DNSSD agenda shows more information.

DNS-Over-HTTPS (DOH)

IETF 101 will also feature the second meeting of one of the working groups with the most fun names – DNS Over HTTPS or… “DOH!” This group is working on standardizing how to use DNS within the context of HTTPS. It meets on Thursday from 13:30-15:30. As the agenda indicates, the focus is on some of the practical implementation experience and the work on the group’s single Internet-draft: draft-ietf-doh-dns-over-https.

DOH is an interesting working group in that it was formed for the express purpose of creating a single RFC. With that draft moving to completion, this might be the final meeting of DOH – unless it is rechartered to do some additional work.

DNSSEC Coordination informal breakfast meeting

Finally, on Friday morning before the sessions start we are planning an informal gathering of people involved with DNSSEC. We’ve done this at many of the IETF meetings over the past few years and it’s been a good way to connect and talk about various projects. True to the “informal” nature, we’re not sure of the location and time yet (and we are not sure if it will involve food or just be a meeting). If you would like to join us, please drop me an email or join the dnssec-coord mailing list.

Other Working Groups

DANE and DNSSEC will also appear in the TLS Working Group’s Wednesday meeting. The draft-ietf-tls-dnssec-chain-extension will be presented as a potential way to make DANE work faster by allowing both DANE and DNSSEC records to be transmitted in a single exchange, thus reducing the time involved with DANE transactions. Given the key role DNS plays in the Internet in general, you can also expect DNS to appear in other groups throughout the week.

P.S. For more information about DNSSEC and DANE and how you can get them deployed for your networks and domains, please see our Deploy360 site:

Relevant Working Groups at IETF 101:

DNSOP (DNS Operations) WG
Tuesday, 20 March 2018, 15:50-18:30 UTC, Sandringham
Thursday, 22 March 2018, 18:10-19:10 UTC, Sandringham
Agenda: https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/101/agenda/dnsop/
Documents: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/dnsop/
Charter: http://tools.ietf.org/wg/dnsop/charters/

DPRIVE (DNS PRIVate Exchange) WG
Wednesday, 21 March 2018, 13:30-15:00 UTC, Balmoral
Agenda: https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/101/agenda/dprive/
Documents: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/dprive/
Charter: http://tools.ietf.org/wg/dprive/charters/

DNSSD (Extensions for Scalable DNS Service Discovery) WG
Thursday, 22 March 2018, 9:30-12:00 UTC, Buckingham
Agenda: https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/101/agenda/dnssd/
Documents: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/dnssd/
Charter: http://tools.ietf.org/wg/dnssd/charters/

DOH (DNS over HTTPS) WG
Thursday, 22 March 2018, 13:30-15:30 UTC, Blenheim
Agenda: https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/101/agenda/doh/
Documents: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/doh/
Charter: http://tools.ietf.org/wg/doh/charters/

Follow Us

It will be a busy week in London, and whether you plan to be there or join remotely, there’s much to monitor. Read the full series of Rough Guide to IETF 101 posts, and follow us on the Internet Society blog, Twitter, or Facebook using #IETF101 to keep up with the latest news.

The post Rough Guide to IETF 101: DNSSEC, DANE, DNS Security and Privacy appeared first on Internet Society.

Mar 09

DNSSEC Activities at ICANN 61 in San Juan on March 11-14, 2018

Sunday marks the beginning of the DNSSEC activities at the ICANN 61 meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As per usual there will be a range of activities related to DNSSEC or DANE. Two of the sessions will be streamed live and will be recorded for later viewing. Here is what is happening.

All times below are Atlantic Standard Time (AST), which is UTC-4.

DNSSEC For Everybody: A Beginner’s Guide – Sunday, 11 March

On Sunday, March 11, we’ll have our “DNSSEC For Everybody: A Beginner’s Guide” session that will include our usual skit where a bunch of engineers act out how DNS and DNSSEC work! Yes, it’s a good bit of fun and people have told us it has helped tremendously.

Please come with your questions and prepare to learn all about DNSSEC!

DNSSEC Workshop – Wednesday, 14 March

Our big 6-hour workshop will take place on Wednesday, March 14, from 09:00 – 15:00 in Room 208-BC. Lunch will be included. Thank you to our lunch sponsors: Afilias, CIRA, and SIDN.

The very full agenda includes:

  • DNSSEC Workshop Introduction, Program, Deployment Around the World – Counts, Counts, Counts
  • Panel: DNSSEC Activities, including representatives of .CA, .PR and .BR
  • A Sentinel for Detecting Trusted Keys in DNSSEC
  • Experience with DNSSEC Validation at CPE
  • DNSSEC HSM, Signer and KSK Rollover
  • Negative Trust Anchors
  • Real World DANE Inter-Domain Email Transport
  • Panel: Current State of Root KSK Rollover and What’s Next?
  • DNSSEC – How Can I Help?

It should be an outstanding session!

DNSSEC Implementers Gathering – 14 March

On the evening of Wednesday, March 14, after the DNSSEC Workshop is all over, we’ll have our informal “DNSSEC Implementers Gathering” bringing together people who have implemented DNSSEC or DANE in some way for a time to share information, have conversation and light snacks. Invitations have gone out to various DNSSEC mailing lists – if you are interested in attending please send a message to me at york@isoc.org. We thank Afilias for their generous sponsorship of this gathering at ICANN 61!

As I am not able to travel to ICANN 61, I want to thank Jacques Latour for stepping in to help with some of the emceeing and other meeting facilitation duties that I often do.

Please do join us for a great set of sessions about how we can work together to make the DNS more secure and trusted!

If you would like more information about DNSSEC or DANE, please visit our Start Here page to begin.

The post DNSSEC Activities at ICANN 61 in San Juan on March 11-14, 2018 appeared first on Internet Society.

Mar 08

Voting open for 2018 Internet Society Board of Trustees elections

The 2018 Internet Society Board of Trustees elections have begun!

Electronic ballots were emailed today to all voting representatives. They will have until Monday, 9 April at 15:00 UTC to cast their ballots.

In this year’s election cycle, Organization Members are asked to elect one Trustee to the Board. So voting representatives may vote for only one of the candidates on the Organization Members ballot.

Similarly, in this year’s election cycle, Chapters are asked to elect one Trustee to the Board. So voting representatives may vote for only one of the candidates on the Chapters ballot.

All new Trustees will serve three-year terms commencing in June.

Additional details on the elections, as well as information on all of the candidates can be found here:

https://www.internetsociety.org/board-of-trustees/elections/

To facilitate dialogue between OMAC members and candidates for the Organization Members election, and between Chapter leaders and candidates for the Chapters election, the Elections Committee has again launched an online Candidate Forum. In response to feedback from members, we moved the Forum from the Connect platform to a Mailman mailing list.

Everyone subscribed to the OMAC list was subscribed automatically to the ISOC Organization Members Candidate Forum list. Everyone subscribed to the Chapter-Delegates list was subscribed automatically to the ISOC Chapters Candidate Forum list. (You may unsubscribe from either list at any time.)

If you did not receive an email welcoming you to the Organization Members Candidate Forum list or the Chapters Candidate Forum list, please contact me.

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the candidates and engage with your Organization’s voting representative or Chapter’s voting delegate on the choices this election presents.

Hiroshi Esaki
2018 Elections Committee Chair
Internet Society

The post Voting open for 2018 Internet Society Board of Trustees elections appeared first on Internet Society.

Feb 17

Try curling this weekend (Feb 17-18) at Petersham Curling Club and next week (Feb 19-24)

Want to try out curling?  The Petersham Curling Club (PCC) is offering multiple opportunities over the next week.  This weekend (Feb 17-18) there are two free “Olympic Open House” events:

  • Saturday, February 17, between 1:00 – 5:00pm
  • Sunday, February 18, between 1:00 – 5:00pm

You will learn the basics of the sport and get a chance to try it out on the ice.

However… pre-registration is completely SOLD OUT! There will be limited walk-in spaces available, so you can still head down and check it out, but you may have to wait a bit.

PCC is about 45 minutes south of Keene, NH, in Petersham, MA. More info can be found on the club’s website.

Another option is to pay for a Learn to Curl session on February 19, 20, 21 or 24.  In these sessions you will get to learn all about the sport and get a chance to get out on the ice and learn how to play.

SPACES ARE FILLING UP FAST for the Learn to Curl sessions – so sign up on the PCC Learn to Curl page if you want to join in.

And if you would like to help us bring curling to the Monadnock region, please fill out this form to let us know you are interested!

Feb 17

Try curling this weekend (Feb 17-18) at Petersham Curling Club and next week (Feb 19-24)

Want to try out curling?  The Petersham Curling Club (PCC) is offering multiple opportunities over the next week.  This weekend (Feb 17-18) there are two free “Olympic Open House” events:

  • Saturday, February 17, between 1:00 – 5:00pm
  • Sunday, February 18, between 1:00 – 5:00pm

You will learn the basics of the sport and get a chance to try it out on the ice.

However… pre-registration is completely SOLD OUT! There will be limited walk-in spaces available, so you can still head down and check it out, but you may have to wait a bit.

PCC is about 45 minutes south of Keene, NH, in Petersham, MA. More info can be found on the club’s website.

Another option is to pay for a Learn to Curl session on February 19, 20, 21 or 24.  In these sessions you will get to learn all about the sport and get a chance to get out on the ice and learn how to play.

SPACES ARE FILLING UP FAST for the Learn to Curl sessions – so sign up on the PCC Learn to Curl page if you want to join in.

And if you would like to help us bring curling to the Monadnock region, please fill out this form to let us know you are interested!

Jan 26

Watch the “State of the Net 2018” Live on Monday, January 29

Internet governance, blockchain, algorithms, free speech, net neutrality, IoT, cybersecurity, fragmentation … and so much more!  On Monday, January 29, 2018, the State of the Net 2018 conference will be streaming live out of the Newseum in Washington DC. You can watch starting at 9:00am US EST (UTC-5) Monday morning at:

http://www.stateofthenet.org/live/

The SOTN 2018 agenda is packed with many of the leading voices in US Internet policy, including Senators, Representatives, and even an FCC Commissioner. Global organizations and corporations will be represented, too, among the many speakers.

At 11:00am EST, our own Sally Shipman Wentworth, VP of Global Policy Development, will participate in a panel, Internet Governance: Are We In A Post Multi-Stakeholder World?, along with Larry Strickling. Larry is perhaps best known recently for the IANA transition work but has been working with us on efforts to expand the use of the multistakeholder model for Internet governance. Another panelist will be Dr. Jovan Kurbalija from our partner the DiploFoundation. The abstract is:

It will have been one year into the Trump Administration and it is time to take stock of the complex set of International arrangements that the Administration is dealing with. A new set of stages for these issues are fast approaching. World governments and international groups are jockeying for greater control over Internet functions and content. Confabs like the ITU 2018 Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-18) are just one of the many venues that will reveal the struggles for Internet domination. Complex trade deals and national regulations such as the NAFTA and the imminent European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will strain intergovernmental cooperation. Cyber security initiatives and law enforcement cross-border access to citizen data will test the sovereignty of nations. 2018 may be the most significant year in terms of Internet governance since the dawn of the Internet.

It should be a lively and interesting discussion! In preparation, we would encourage you to read our paper: Internet Governance – Why the Multistakeholder Approach Works.

The sessions will be recorded for later viewing. You can also follow the #SOTN2018 hashtag on Twitter to see updates from the event.

The post Watch the “State of the Net 2018” Live on Monday, January 29 appeared first on Internet Society.

Jan 22

Building Our New Website: Improved search, speed, and an open issue tracker

As we continue to evolve our new website, I will provide more regular updates to all of you visiting our site. Today’s topics are: improved search; much faster speed; and an open issue tracker.

Searching our content

For all of you who contacted us saying “I can’t find anything” on the site through the search box (the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the screen), we’ve got some great news – it should now work!   We tried two different search solutions for all our content before we moved on to a third solution that we find works well. Please do let us know if you are still having challenges finding content.

Speeding up the site

The site should now be much faster! We recently deployed some caching servers in front of our site and the speed should be dramatically improved for most all of the pages. This was very important to us as we want to provide the best user experience.

Tracking open issues

If you do find anything wrong with the new site, we have an open issue tracker on Github. You can visit the repository at:

https://github.com/InternetSociety/web-site-feedback

and the actual list of open issues is at: https://github.com/InternetSociety/web-site-feedback/issues

You are welcome to open issues there and we’ll be notified. If you don’t have a Github account and for some reason you don’t want to create one, you are always welcome to email me directly at york@isoc.org.

We welcome any and all feedback about the site. Thank you for visiting – and for supporting the work of the Internet Society to ensure that the Internet remains open, globally connected, secure, and trusted for everyone.

The post Building Our New Website: Improved search, speed, and an open issue tracker appeared first on Internet Society.

Jan 22

Building Our New Website: Improved search, speed, and an open issue tracker

As we continue to evolve our new website, I will provide more regular updates to all of you visiting our site. Today’s topics are: improved search; much faster speed; and an open issue tracker.

Searching our content

For all of you who contacted us saying “I can’t find anything” on the site through the search box (the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the screen), we’ve got some great news – it should now work!   We tried two different search solutions for all our content before we moved on to a third solution that we find works well. Please do let us know if you are still having challenges finding content.

Speeding up the site

The site should now be much faster! We recently deployed some caching servers in front of our site and the speed should be dramatically improved for most all of the pages. This was very important to us as we want to provide the best user experience.

Tracking open issues

If you do find anything wrong with the new site, we have an open issue tracker on Github. You can visit the repository at:

https://github.com/InternetSociety/web-site-feedback

and the actual list of open issues is at: https://github.com/InternetSociety/web-site-feedback/issues

You are welcome to open issues there and we’ll be notified. If you don’t have a Github account and for some reason you don’t want to create one, you are always welcome to email me directly at york@isoc.org.

We welcome any and all feedback about the site. Thank you for visiting – and for supporting the work of the Internet Society to ensure that the Internet remains open, globally connected, secure, and trusted for everyone.

The post Building Our New Website: Improved search, speed, and an open issue tracker appeared first on Internet Society.

Jan 08

Deadline of Feb 1 for Nominations for Public Interest Registry (.ORG Operator) Board of Directors (Featured Blog)

Would you be interested in helping guide the future of the Public Interest Registry (PIR), the non-profit operator of the .ORG, .NGO and .ONG domains? If so, the Internet Society is seeking nominations for three positions on the PIR Board of Directors. The nominations deadline is 23:00 UTC on Thursday, February 1, 2018. Find out more about the positions and the required qualifications. More...