Networking

Net governing body ICANN has called on VeriSign to "voluntarily suspend" Site Finder amid renewed concerns that the web typo replacement service could undermine key Net standards.

Last week VeriSign deployed a "wildcard" service into the .com and .net Top Level Domain zones. This VeriSign wildcard redirects traffic that would otherwise have resulted in a "no domain" response to a VeriSign-operated website, called Site Finder, the features, search results and links to paid advertisements.

Network administrators are fuming about changes made by domain registrar Verisign to the DNS system yesterday amid concern that the alterations could make it difficult for mail servers to reject mail from invalid domains.

Verisign yesterday added wildcard DNS records to all .com and .net domains - redirecting surfers who get lost on the Net to a search page, called Site Finder, run by the company. Those who type in non-existent addresses will also be served up Site Finder, instead of an error message.

Due to the recent explosion in growth the Internet is running out of IP address space. Solutions to this problem have already been developed, such as Network Address Translation (NAT.) The problem with solutions such as NAT is that they do not scale very well. On the small scale they work well and have few problems if used with well known layer 4 services. But relying on port/address translation on a large scale is not a good idea. Therefore, your friends at places such as the IETF and Networking companies have come up with IPv6. IPv6 is similar to IPv4 in only basic coneptual design.

In a Web-connected world, even strangers are only a few electronic clicks away. A study finds that most anyone can reach a distant stranger in an average of six relays by asking friends and acquaintances to message some site seemingly closer to the target.

Researchers at Columbia University set up an experiment in which individuals would try to get a message to a stranger somewhere else in the world through the Internet. Participants knew basic facts about the 18 targets: name, location, profession and some educational background.

As much of the world nears an Internet address crunch, North America stands as an island apart, threatening to fragment plans for the biggest overhaul of the Web in 30 years. Global momentum is growing for a new address system, known as IPv6, which promises to vastly expand the pool of unique numbers available for connecting PCs and other devices to the Net. The standard is widely seen as a necessary successor to the current IPv4 system, which some fear could run short of addresses in Asia and Europe within the next few years.

A critical software bug affecting many key internet routers could be used to derail net traffic, computer experts have warned.

Routers are the hubs of the internet, directing traffic to its destination. The software flaw affects the most common internet routers, those running the Cisco IOS operating system.

Repeatedly sending specially crafted data packets to a vulnerable router will cause it to attempt to restart over and over again, making it unavailable to direct legitimate traffic.

The next version of the Internet Protocol, which provides a 128-bit standard to transmit data, is getting a jump-start for adoption with its endorsement by the Department of Defense. The result: A boost in the number of available Internet addresses, to eventually number as many as an address for every cell in every person on the planet. The DOD is requiring all contractors involved in its Global Information Grid program to support the new Internet Protocol version 6 as of October 1, 2003.

The recently discovered Stumbler network-mapping tool represents a variety of malware that leaves enterprises with little in the way of defense, other than to lock down networks and employ intrusion detection, experts said. At first, some researchers considered Stumbler a Trojan horse program, but Neel Mehta, a research engineer with Atlanta-based Internet Security Systems Inc.'s X-Force research team, isn't so sure.

InforFX

Source: ZDNet

The idea that there is an Internet address shortage looming in Asia or any part of the world is "misinformation," according to a senior executive at the body responsible for Internet addresses in the Asia-Pacific region.
Paul Wilson, director general of APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre), which distributes and registers Internet address resources in that region, denies the shortage, saying that it will take one or even two decades before the current address system runs out.

Source: CNN

L33tdawg: 26 Mbit -- schweet...

Japan's Softbank Corp says it will offer a new Web access service that more than doubles the speed available now, keeping pace with rivals such as NTT West.

Softbank, Japan's largest ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) operator, plans to start taking applications for the service, which offers a downlink speed of up to 26 megabits per second, on Wednesday with a view to launching it as early as July.