6 ms·

It is shocking how few people understand how DNS works

tazjin 3y ago
I wasn't sure what you were referring to until reading the other top-level comments. Wow. And that's on a site with a technical audience!
SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
In people’s defense DNS is complicated. Try building a product that uses it and realize there are a ton of edge cases to handle
- dinkleberg 3y ago
  They don’t need to know the edge cases to understand the basics of how DNS works. It is a foundational element of how the internet works and any software dev should have at least some fundamental knowledge of it (unless they don’t do anything that ever touched networking which I imagine is rather rare).
- tephra 3y ago
  While there are certainly complex and weird stuff in the DNS world. The basic of how the DNS works is really not that complicated.
- striking 3y ago
  Yeah, but it's not like those comments are making a mistake about how the tech works because they're looking to learn something today. Posting an axe-grinding comment that shows a clear misunderstanding of the technology on a technical forum is an unforced and pretty indefensible error.
dinkleberg 3y ago
It never fails to amuse. Our world is full of really complex tech which people are eager to learn, yet those same people will seem to be allergic to DNS despite it being very simple (at least the main parts of it).
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  Look at the amount of coders who can struggle with simple system settings. Some people only learn what they want to or need to learn, the bare minimum.
stefan_ 3y ago
It is shocking how few people understand how business works. If you think Cloudflare wants to be in the registrar business, not push their Anti DDoS stuff on a captive audience, I have a bridge to sell you.
- acdha 3y ago
  > push their Anti DDoS stuff on a captive audience This is a very provocative way to spin “selling the CDN services customers are buying”. What reason do we have to think anyone is an unwilling party to that transaction?
- profmonocle 3y ago
  > registrar business They're the registry, not the registrar. CISA is the registrar for .gov domains, Cloudflare just handles the backend. (DNS and whois infrastructure) Government employees likely never see anything about Cloudflare at all when they manage the DNS settings for domains, just like I never see anything about Charleston Road Registry (Google subsidiary) when I manage a .dev domain on Name.com. > push their Anti DDoS stuff on a captive audience How is this a captive audience? Are you implying Cloudflare won't allow .gov domains to use non-cloudflare nameservers?
- cheekibreeki2 3y ago
  How dare they sell their reliable and popular products at rates untouched by akamai and fastly.
tiffanyh 3y ago
Given this isn’t only DNS, agreed. This changes: - Registry, - Name Server and - DNSEC More details here: https://indico.dns-oarc.net/event/48/contributions/1038/attachments/1005/1948/gov-transition-nsec-nsec3.pdf https://indico.dns-oarc.net/event/48/contributions/1038/atta...
- tephra 3y ago
  Those are all part of the DNS.
wand3r 3y ago
As someone that was dealing with my domain being squatted on, I can say I know more about DNS today than I did yesterday.
FuriouslyAdrift 3y ago
Paul Vixie quote and link to explanations: "DNS is a distributed, coherent, reliable, autonomous, hierarchical database, the first and only one of its kind." https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1242499 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1242499
globular-toast 3y ago
This being the top comment means there are enough people here smug because they know how DNS works. People who need to know generally know. Nobody can know everything and most people don't need to know how it works.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- respectmysoa 3y ago
  [dead]
dang 3y ago
Ok, but please don't post empty putdowns. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
respectmysoa 3y ago
[dead]

I wasn't sure what you were referring to until reading the other top-level comments. Wow. And that's on a site with a technical audience!

SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago

In people’s defense DNS is complicated. Try building a product that uses it and realize there are a ton of edge cases to handle

dinkleberg 3y ago
They don’t need to know the edge cases to understand the basics of how DNS works. It is a foundational element of how the internet works and any software dev should have at least some fundamental knowledge of it (unless they don’t do anything that ever touched networking which I imagine is rather rare).
tephra 3y ago
While there are certainly complex and weird stuff in the DNS world. The basic of how the DNS works is really not that complicated.
striking 3y ago
Yeah, but it's not like those comments are making a mistake about how the tech works because they're looking to learn something today. Posting an axe-grinding comment that shows a clear misunderstanding of the technology on a technical forum is an unforced and pretty indefensible error.

dinkleberg 3y ago

It never fails to amuse. Our world is full of really complex tech which people are eager to learn, yet those same people will seem to be allergic to DNS despite it being very simple (at least the main parts of it).

PrimeMcFly 3y ago
Look at the amount of coders who can struggle with simple system settings. Some people only learn what they want to or need to learn, the bare minimum.

stefan_ 3y ago

It is shocking how few people understand how business works. If you think Cloudflare wants to be in the registrar business, not push their Anti DDoS stuff on a captive audience, I have a bridge to sell you.

acdha 3y ago
> push their Anti DDoS stuff on a captive audience This is a very provocative way to spin “selling the CDN services customers are buying”. What reason do we have to think anyone is an unwilling party to that transaction?
profmonocle 3y ago
> registrar business They're the registry, not the registrar. CISA is the registrar for .gov domains, Cloudflare just handles the backend. (DNS and whois infrastructure) Government employees likely never see anything about Cloudflare at all when they manage the DNS settings for domains, just like I never see anything about Charleston Road Registry (Google subsidiary) when I manage a .dev domain on Name.com. > push their Anti DDoS stuff on a captive audience How is this a captive audience? Are you implying Cloudflare won't allow .gov domains to use non-cloudflare nameservers?
cheekibreeki2 3y ago
How dare they sell their reliable and popular products at rates untouched by akamai and fastly.

tiffanyh 3y ago

Given this isn’t only DNS, agreed. This changes: - Registry, - Name Server and - DNSEC More details here: https://indico.dns-oarc.net/event/48/contributions/1038/attachments/1005/1948/gov-transition-nsec-nsec3.pdf https://indico.dns-oarc.net/event/48/contributions/1038/atta...

tephra 3y ago
Those are all part of the DNS.

wand3r 3y ago

As someone that was dealing with my domain being squatted on, I can say I know more about DNS today than I did yesterday.

FuriouslyAdrift 3y ago

Paul Vixie quote and link to explanations: "DNS is a distributed, coherent, reliable, autonomous, hierarchical database, the first and only one of its kind." https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1242499 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1242499

globular-toast 3y ago

This being the top comment means there are enough people here smug because they know how DNS works. People who need to know generally know. Nobody can know everything and most people don't need to know how it works.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
respectmysoa 3y ago
[dead]

dang 3y ago

Ok, but please don't post empty putdowns. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

respectmysoa 3y ago

[dead]