

If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains? - moses1400
http://www.centernetworks.com/libya-shuts-down-the-internet-domains

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mgw
Probably nothing will happen. Nameservers for .ly are dns.lttnet.NET,
dns1.lttnet.NET, ns-ly.ripe.NET, auth02.ns.uu.NET, phloem.uoregon.edu. Of
these only dns.lttnet.net and dns1.lttnet.net are hosted in Libya. If the
dictator will have the local internet shutdown, he probably will not go to the
lengths of also clearing all foreign DNS caches listed above.

Nonetheless I would be more careful in selecting a ccTLD to base my business
on. Read, for example, about Gaddafi's dealings with Switzerland and you know
which laws Libya follows at the moment.

~~~
logic
As of right now, dns and dns1.lttnet.net (in-country) are unreachable, but the
out-of-country nameservers are responding with what I presume was their last
zone transfer. bit.ly still works, for example, but because of the outage,
nic.ly is dead.

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burgerbrain
Hopefully? Stop abusing country code TLDs already...

~~~
StavrosK
What do you suggest? Getting a .com domain? Have you tried to do that
recently? All dictionary words and most two-word combinations are taken by
squatters. I searched for a domain name for a new web app the other day and
wanted a .com name, it was almost impossible to find _anything_. I spent two
days searching until I found something.

.net and .org are better, but users always expect (and type in) .com.

~~~
abstractbill
It's not actually _that_ bad. I recently wrote a script that sends me daily
emails of all .com domains that are expiring that day, sorted by length, and
by a measure of how "English-like" they are (just using a frequency table for
pairs of letters). I was surprised by how much good stuff is available.

~~~
timerickson
Please publish this script! Or, throw up a site and let us add our email to a
newsletter list :)

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sequoia
I apologize if I missed something, but I think it's shamefully insensitive of
the editors of that site to not even acknowledge that this issue is
proportionally _irrelevant_ in light of the fact that peaceful protesters are
getting _shot to death_ TO-DAY in Libya.

[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23924674-liby...](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23924674-libya-
troops-shoot-24-dead-as-protesters-march-in-five-cities.do)

Let's do a thought experiment for a moment and pretend there are some things
more significant than web development and e-commerce, shall we?

yes I cross-posted.

EDIT: the author/editor there (Allen Stern) was gracious and considerate in
his response to my complaint, and committed to trying to find a way to put the
.ly domain issue in perspective in the article. Kudos centernetworks!

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guelo
I do not believe that would affect DNS since it is distributed. The root zone
file has five servers listed as authoritative for .ly

    
    
      LY. NS AUTH02.NS.UU.NET.
      LY. NS PHLOEM.UOREGON.EDU.
      LY. NS DNS.LTTNET.NET.
      LY. NS DNS1.LTTNET.NET.
      LY. NS NS-LY.RIPE.NET.
    

I'm sure at least the uu.net and uoregon.edu servers are located in the US.
Besides, your ISP DNS caches will stay warm for several days.

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atgm
Why do people use .ly anyway? It's not like there aren't other two-letter
domains out there.

~~~
burgerbrain
It's some dumb marketing gimmick. The idea basically seems to boil down to
_"only old foggies use the major gTLDs these days, lets be hip and make our
company name an adjective that is also our URL"_.

~~~
timerickson
It's more than a gimmick. A recognizable and memorable URL has proven to be
extremely beneficial to new startups. Memorable .com addresses are becoming
endangered, or very very expensive.

~~~
burgerbrain
To this day I have to doublecheck myself on where the '.'s are places in
_"del.icio.us"_ (in fact, it abandoning this URL some time ago). Now,
"amazon.com"? Absolutely no worries there.

------
kiujhygthujk
The same thing that happens when tuvala sinks beneath the waves - nothing.

It's more likely that the US gov might decide that Libya is a terrorist nation
and shut down all the .ly addresses for you.

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jdp23
The same question showed up on Quora ... no reponse:
[http://www.quora.com/What-will-happen-to-http-bit-ly-
links-w...](http://www.quora.com/What-will-happen-to-http-bit-ly-links-when-
Gaddafi-shuts-down-the-Internet-in-Libya-due-to-
protests?q=If+Libya+Shuts+Down+the+Internehat+Happens+To+.ly+Domains%3F)

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Ygor
Pro: People stop abusing and overusing ccTLDs. (maybe not?)

Con: Many major services go done, which causes a lot of unhappiness and
headaches. (does it?)

~~~
zyb09
Don't know about the headaches - more like: okay bit.ly seems to be down, lets
use something else.

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dholowiski
Has anybody asked what happens to .com when the USA turns off their Internet?
Having a .com address could be a huge risk to companies in other, more stable
countries.

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elouise
they go away.

~~~
jdp23
well-summarized :-)

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rapind
By the same logic .com domains aren't _safe_ either given the recent ICE
shutdowns.

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Charuru
The schadenfreude is strong in this thread.

~~~
Keyframe
Why do people keep using that word - schadenfreude, when peinlich would be
more suitable?

~~~
mkramlich
peinlich is more suitable but alas it's taken by a squatter who wants $50k for
it ;)

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Qz
This is total.ly missing the point.

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alphaoverlord
this article simply poses the question, and does not answer it. waste of 5
minutes. for that, I will not upvote it.

