How to avoid roadblocks in South Africa

Posted on December 31st, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,367 views

South African government officials and traffic authorities are not happy with a new service started by a Belgian company, Etri (First to Know), to help road users evade traffic road blocks and stay out of jail.

The Get Road Smart service is a cell phone subscription service which sends SMSes to your mobile alerting you to the presence of speed traps and mobile road blocks set up to catch drunk drivers (and now also drug users).

The service was introduced into KZN recently and has proven popular. It has now been extended to cover Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The service also operates in Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Controversy surrounds the service. Bheki Cele, Transport MEC, feels that it defeats the ends of justice. Collen Msibi , National Transport Department spokesperson,  said the department did not support it either.

Managing Director of Etri, Vincent Parisis, had this to say:

“Officials and politicians may not like the service, but it is legal. We have been in this business for a long time and it is 100 percent legal. We are not promoting drinking and driving or speeding.

In other countries we even go so far as putting in place the bring-home taxi service for people who drink too much.

Parisis said the service contributed to preventing people from drinking and driving and speeding.

The natural response when people receive information about speed and alcohol checks is they will change their behaviour.

They will stop drinking alcohol or slow down. This is exactly what happens when people receive our SMS.”

What do you think? Is this service valuable or will it hamper traffic authorities ability to crack down on bad road users?

Sources:
Roadblock tip-off service to spread
Road block tip-off SMS angers officials

Tags: ETRI, Roadblocks, Vincent Parisis
Filed under Roadblocks | 9 Comments »

Domain Name System (DNS) tweaks

Posted on December 24th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,020 views

The Domain Name System has been the way we use the Internet since 1983. The underlying protocol of the Internet, TCP/IP, identifies each device attached to the Internet by one or more IP addresses which are difficult for people to remember and do not describe the nature of the device.

DNS assigns a hierarchical name to each device. Prior to DNS, a central HOSTS.TXT file was used which listed all the devices attached to the Internet. Whilst the Internet comprised a small set of devices, this system sufficed but it does not scale beyond a few thousand devices. After that the database simply becomes too massive.

The DNS system allows a name to be attached to IP addresses, so that one can type in a domain name instead of a dotted quad IP address (IPv4).

An ISP or web hoster usually supplies their subscribers with at least two IP addresses which represent the nameservers you use to do DNS lookups. However, not all nameservers are created equal. Some are faster than others, some are more accurate (because they update their caches more frequently).

Since July 2006, a totally free DNS service has been available for anyone connected to the Internet to use in lieu of the ones their ISP or web hoster gives to them. It’s called OpenDNS and it offers much more than simply domain name resolution (the process of translating a hostname into an IP address).

OpenDNS also allows subscribers to filter out harmful sites and sites not suitable for minors. To use OpenDNS, simply substitute the IP addresses of their publicly accessible name servers for those supplied to you by your ISP. Instructions for setting up PCs and routers are available on their site. You may also create an account with them which allows you access to more advanced features and stats.

For people with dynamic IPs, which includes most people connecting to the Internet via an ISP, OpenDNS has a utility, OpenDNS updater, which will automatically update your OpenDNS account with your new IP address whenever you are assigned a new one. This allows you to track your stats and keep your settings across multiple IP addresses.

OpenDNS is fast, accurate and reliable. It definitely enhances one’s Internet experience. However, there is another issue to look at too.

Since Windows 2000, Windows also runs a local DNS cache on your PC which by default takes too long to refresh itself, because it’s TTL (Time To Live) value is set to 24 hours, which means that if a site gets a new IP address, you will not be able to resolve it’s new value until your local Windows DNS cache has expired.

Windows provides a way of shortening the TTL by setting new values in registry parameters. You can add these parameters in yourself using the built in Windows tool, regedit.

Instructions on what parameters to change and how are provided in this Windows Help and Support page:
How to Disable Client-Side DNS Caching in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 

I set my TTL value to 4 hours for postive responses and to 0 hours for negative responses and I can tell you it made a difference. If you are registering new domains or transferring them between servers, you definitely want to change your default TTL values or you will be frustrated to discover that while the IP address changes have propagated to most people, your local Windows DNS cache still retains the old values.

Tags: DNS, OpenDNS, TTL
Filed under Internet | No Comments »

The co.za domain name registration nightmare

Posted on December 22nd, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,599 views

For anyone wishing to own their own Internet domain name, owning and managing a co.za domain could not be harder if the co.za registrar, Uniforum SA, tried.

There are several major problems all caused by the lack of a modern system to register and manage and pay for co.za domains.

To register a Top Level Domain (TLD) such as a dot com or dot net or dot org, the procedure is straight forward. You can choose between a large number of competing online registrars who regularly offer promotions and discounts which allows you to get the best possible deal. I use godaddy myself, so I’ll use them as my example.

To register a new TLD domain, you open godaddy’s web site and register an account with them. Then you search for the domain name you want. If it’s available you add it to your cart and proceed to checkout. You pay for your domain with a credit card or with your PayPal account. As soon as you have paid for the domain, it is registered and you can then proceed to activate hosting for it. That is accomplished by entering the nameserver information. You can even create custom nameservers for your new domain simply by adding them and assigning to them the IP addresses that your web hoster supplied to you.

For most TLD domains, your domain will come online either immediately or within a few hours. No checks are enforced on your domain. If you enter the wrong information, it obviously won’t work, but it won’t require you to have any pre-existing DNS records on a pre-existing web hosting account.

If you want to switch your domain to a new server, you simply login to your online control panel, that your registrar provides, and edit the nameserver fields. Updates either reflect immediately or within a few hours. Again no checks are made for pre-existing DNS records on your new server (or web hosting account) – whatever you type in is simply accepted.

The system is easy and quick. Getting your domain set up on a new server takes a few minutes and the changeover happens either immediately or within a few hours.

This is, however, not the case with a co.za Second Level Domain (SLD). Frankly it is a nightmare. Registering a co.za domain is a technical challenge. For starters, unlike with a dot com, you cannot register a co.za domain without first setting up an existing DNS SOA (Start of Authority) record for it on TWO nameservers. This means that before you can register a co.za you have to host it, which is an additional expense, especially for someone who simply wants to own a co.za domain but does not necessarily wish to use it right away.

To register a co.za one must fill out a text form and then email it to a special email address which automatically processes domain registrations, updates and deletes. For a new domain, registration is usually accomplished within minutes IF the name servers specified on the registration form contain correctly formatted SOA entries for the domain name being registered. If Uniforum SA’s script finds an error in them, it rejects the application. The same applies to updates, but not to deletes.

Updating a co.za domain involves a frustrating delay of 24 hours in which voting tickets are sent out to the email address specified in your current registration. If the email addresses are no longer valid, you have to fill in a form, take a copy of your ID, get them certified and then fax them to Uniforum SA. The only online method of updating involves responding to emailed out tickets. If after 24 hours, the votes all accepted the update, then Uniforum SA updates the domain registration and a further delay is involved while you wait for the DNS to propagate. This can take 8 hours.

All this pales in comparison to the technical challenge involved in setting up custom name servers for your co.za domain. It is used to be popular for many co.za domains to have name servers at the same domain, like this:

ns1.domain.co.za
ns2.domain.co.za

However, this all changed in May 2005 when Uniforum SA adopted a very strict regime for registering custom name servers for a co.za domain. Unlike with a dot com, you cannot simply add them yourself and be merrily on your way.

To register custom name servers for a co.za now requires you to have two static IP addresses assigned solely to your domain. They cannot also be used as custom name servers for any other co.za domain, which used to be the case.

The reason is because each IP must now reverse resolve to its respective name server name. Uniforum SA’s domain update script checks that each IP address has correctly formatted SOA records, that it contains no “bad” data, is not missing any data and that each IP reverse resolves. None of these things are essential for your custom name servers to work. All that is required is that your domain registrar add A and NS records to its DNS database for your domain name – no checking of external DNS entries is needed.

So why does Uniforum SA check for all these things? Because some guy (Matt Tagg) discovered a theoretical exploit for adding A records to third party domains during the domain update process. An exploit that had never actually ever been used. An exploit that potentially only exists because of the way that Uniforum SA updates domains – via unauthenticated emails instead of through an authenticated online control panel that only allows you to make changes to your own domains.

So the bottom line for any owner of a co.za domain is that you have no choice as to what you will pay for one, since there is only one registrar for them and they decide the price as they see fit. co.za domains now cost R50 to register, but due to all the technical challenges involved, most people prefer to pay their ISP or a web hoster (like myself) to do it for them at around R250 per annum.

They also have the added expense of having to pay for a web hosting account since without one, it is not possible to register a co.za domain. And when it comes to switching web hosts, it takes over 24 hours instead of a few hours. And if they want custom name servers, it costs extra to have two dedicated static IPs assigned to your account, and then there is the additional technical hurdle of making sure that all the required DNS records are all sailing in a row.

Did I mention that if something goes wrong and your update is rejected that you have to wait at least another 24 hours to try again? If the domain update has a few errors, it may not reject it outright but instead will sleep for 8 hours at a time, without any ability to tell it to recheck again now.

I have yet to register or update a co.za domain with custom name servers that did not fail at least once. Reason for that? Uniforum SA provides no online tool for you to use to verify that everything is good to go. Nope. Nothing useful like that. You submit your update application and take your chances. And fail and fail and fail, each time waiting either 24 hours to try again or, if you’re lucky, only 8 hours between tries.

Great system.

Score: 0 out of 10.

Tags: co.za, Uniforum SA
Filed under Domain registration | 15 Comments »

Firefox add-on Search Cloudlet for Google and Yahoo

Posted on December 20th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,362 views

This is a truly innovative add-on for the Firefox web browser, that is causing me to rethink my use of Google Chrome as my browser of choice.

Currently Google Chrome does not support add-ons, but apparently will in the future.

With the Search Cloudlet add-on, when you search with either Google or Yahoo, you will get a tag cloud generated which summarises your search results into a tag cloud. The tag cloud comprises all the keywords relevant to your search term. Clicking a tag, adds it to your search terms and refreshes the search with results which zero in on what you want.

You can also see which sites are represented in the search results.

This add-on was written by a research organisation - The International Software and Productivity Engineering Institute (INTSPEI).

Tags: Firefox, Google, INTSPEI, search, yahoo
Filed under Firefox web browser | No Comments »

In England, you will be safe, yes?

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,352 views

South Africans sick of “crime filled” South Africa often flee to England where they know they will be safe, because, as we all know, in First World countries, one can walk the streets at any time of night or day and no-one would dream of hurting you. Right?

Of course, this is naturally correct.

It therefore must be completely untrue, the following story on The Daily Mail, where a 55 year old man, terminally ill from cancer, was beaten to death by youths when he popped out to buy some fish and chips.

This must be incorrect. There must be some mistake. I’m sure they meant to report that this attack happened in South Africa. They must have gotten the country wrong.

So, don’t worry, England is waiting for you scared of crime South Africans.

You will be safe there. I promise.

Tags: Crime
Filed under Crime | 22 Comments »