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We were just now inaccessible to much of the net for a little while, due to a DOS attack against our provider’s provider’s nameserver.
For future reference, in circumstances like this, you may be able to get to Making Light and Electrolite via:
http://63.247.138.217/~pnh/makinglightNote that the “~pnh” part of the URL is needed for both weblogs, not just the one maintained by the actual pnh.
http://63.247.138.217/~pnh/electrolite
I must note that this is only a bandaid. You can't be certain that your web will be on that IP address. One of the reasons the DNS system became popular is because it lets you move machines about. Everyone uses the pointer "http://www.nielsenhayden.org", and if it starts pointing to something else other than 63.247.138.217, that doesn't matter -- the pointer deals with it.
So, if you bookmark that, and Hosting Matters has to move the machine to a different netblock, suddenly, it's gone. For now, when you have a known attack against your DNS servers, it's a useful counter. But be careful what wounds you bandage -- you may be bit by a festering one.
We know this. Probably we erred in assuming that other people know this. Nonetheless, it seemed worth giving people a chance to get at our pages during DNS interruptions, if they care that much. Yes, definitely, bookmarks should stay pointed to "nielsenhayden.com".
Not, by the way, "nielsenhayden.org", Erik notwithstanding...
Probably we erred in assuming that other people know this.
I've made that error enough that I finally learned. The general user population doesn't understand DNS -- nor, do they need to.
While using IP is a quick fix, right now, you may want to pull that in a couple of months. "Static" IPs are only static in the short term.