Site Finder

Site Finder was a wildcard DNS record for all .com and .net unregistered domain names, run by . A wildcard DNS record is a record in a DNS zone that will match requests for non-existent domain names com and . net top-level domain operator VeriSign between 15 September 2003 and 4 October 2003. VeriSign Inc ( is an American company based in Mountain View California that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure including two of the Events 668 - Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse Italy. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 610 - Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

1 Site Finder
2 Issues and controversy
3 Fallout
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

All Internet users who accessed any unregistered domains in the . com and . net domain space, were redirected to a VeriSign web portal with information about VeriSign products and links to "partner" sites. A web portal is a site that provides a single function via a web page or site This gave VeriSign the advantage of receiving greater revenue from advertising and from users wishing to register these domain names. It had the effect of "capturing" the web traffic for several million mis-typed or experimental web accesses per day, and meant that VeriSign effectively "owned" all possible . Web traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a Web site. com and . net domains that had not been bought by others, and could use them as an advertising platform.

VeriSign described the change as an attempt to improve the Web browsing experience for the naive user. VeriSign's critics saw this claim as disingenuous. Certainly, the change led to a dramatic increase in the amount of internet traffic arriving at verisign. com. According to the web traffic measurement company Alexa, in the year prior to the change verisign. Alexa Internet Inc is a California -based Subsidiary company of Amazon com was around the 2,500th most popular website. In the weeks following the change, the site came into the top 20 most popular sites, and reached the top 10 in the aftermath of the change and surrounding controversy. ^[1]

Issues and controversy

There was a storm of controversy among network operators and competing domain registrars, particularly on the influential NANOG and ICANN mailing lists, some of whom asserted:

that the redirection was contrary to the proper operation of the DNS, ICANN policy, and the Internet architecture in general;
that VeriSign breached its trust with the Internet community by using technical architecture for marketing purposes;
that the redirection broke various RFCs and disrupts existing Internet services, such as e-mail relay and filtering (spam filters were not able to detect the validity of domain names);
that the redirection amounted to typosquatting where the unregistered domain being resolved is a spelling mistake for a famous registered domain;
that VeriSign abused its technical control over the . See NANOG (medicine for the protein NANOG is the North American Network Operators' Group, which runs meetings talks surveys and an ICANN (aɪkæn eye-can is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The Domain Name System (DNS is a hierarchical naming system for computers services or any resource participating in the Internet. In Computer network Engineering, a Request for Comments (RFC is a Memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF describing Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of Cybersquatting which relies on mistakes such as Typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting com and . net domains by exerting a de facto monopoly control;
that VeriSign may have been in breach of its contracts for running the . com and . net domains;
that the Site Finder service assumed that all DNS traffic was caused by Web clients, ignoring the fact that DNS is used by other applications such as network printer drivers, FTP software and dedicated communications applications. If users of these applications accidentally entered a wrong host name, instead of a meaningful "host not found" error they would get a "request timed out" error, making it look like the server exists but is not responding. (No statement by VeriSign in support of Site Finder even acknowledged the existence of DNS traffic not caused by web clients, although they published implementation details which mentioned this traffic. ^[2]
that Site Finder contained an EULA which stated that the user accepts the terms by using the service--but since mistyping an address automatically caused the service to be used, users could not refuse to accept the terms.

Others were concerned that the Site Finder service was written entirely in English and therefore was not accessible by non-English speakers. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The Chicago Manual type of grammatical style was specific to the United States. The Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated in writing as CMS or CMOS or verbally as Chicago) is a Style guide for American English The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

The Internet Architecture Board composed a document showing many of the technical arguments why Site Finder was a bad idea; this was used by ICANN as part of its supporting arguments for its action. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and Engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ^[3]

Fallout

A number of workarounds were developed to locally disable the effects of Site Finder on a per-network basis. Most notably, the Internet Software Consortium announced that it had produced a version of the BIND DNS software that could be configured by Internet service providers to filter out wildcard DNS from certain domains; this software was deployed by a number of ISPs. Internet Systems Consortium Inc, also known as ISC, is a Delaware -registered 501(c(3 public charity non-profit corporation which succeeded BIND ( Berkeley Internet Name Domain or "named" is the most commonly used DNS server on the Internet especially on Unix -like systems where it An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet

On 4 October 2003, as a result of a strong letter from ICANN, VeriSign disabled Site Finder. Events 610 - Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ICANN (aɪkæn eye-can is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. However, VeriSign has made public statements that suggest that they may be considering whether they will change this decision in the future. On February 27, 2004, VeriSign filed a lawsuit against ICANN, claiming that ICANN had overstepped its authority. Events 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " The claim regarded not only Site Finder, but also VeriSign's much-criticised Wait Listing Service. A wait-listing service (WLS provided by a Domain name registry provides the ability to option a Domain name that is already registered The claim was dismissed in August 2004; parts of the lawsuit continued, and culminated in a March 1, 2006 settlement between VeriSign and ICANN which included "a new registry agreement relating to the operation of the . Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. COM registry. " [1]

On July 9, 2004, the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) handed down its findings after an investigation on Site Finder. Events 455 - Roman military commander Avitus is proclaimed Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " It found that the service should not be deployed before ICANN and/or appropriate engineering communities were offered the opportunity to review a proposed implementation, and that domain name registries that provide a service to third parties should phase out wildcard records if they are used. A domain name registry, also called Network Information Centre (NIC is part of the Domain Name System (DNS of the Internet which converts Domain

References

^ Alexa.com
^ http://www.verisign.com/resources/gd/sitefinder/implementation.pdf
^ IAB Commentary: Architectural Concerns on the use of DNS Wildcards, September 19, 2006

External links

Events 42 BC - First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight an indecisive battle with Caesar's Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

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Contents

Site Finder

Issues and controversy

Fallout

See also

References

External links