Re: [wg-c] There is no "consensus"

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Tue, Jul 20, 1999 at 12:04:28PM -0400, Milton Mueller wrote:
>It seems obvious to me that a company that sets up the software required to accept
>registrations from intermediaries (registrars) could also easily accept
>registrations from end users themselves.

It may seem obvious to you, but it isn't true.  The function of 
accepting registrations from registrars is quite distinct from the 
function of accepting registrations from end users.  The level of 
customer support required is orders of magnituded different, as 
well. 

[...]

>The importance of the registry, and the relative insignificance of the registrar, is
>evident with a little bit of thought. If register.com was blown up by a stray
>missile tomorrow, it wouldn't affect me or the vast majority of Internet users a
>bit. If NSI's or Nominet's zone files were destroyed, all hell would break loose.

NSI could be blasted from the face of the earth, and it wouldn't 
affect you or the vast majority of Internet users a bit.  Names would 
continue to resolve.  The zone files are replicated and distributed, 
and the services are replicated and distributed.  The same is true 
of Nominet.

But of course, the zone file is not the registry database.  But many 
of the same considerations apply to the registry database, as well.  
*If* NSI is well run, the database is backed up and distributed, 
and could be reproduced quickly.  In fact, of course, NSI has 
problems.  But they still back up the data -- it has saved their 
butts many times in the past.  

>The idea that running and maintaining a database that can have no significant
>downtime and must be capable of accepting millions of transactions a day doesnt
>sound trivial to me.

But you are seriously confused.  NSI's registry database doesn't
support millions of transactions a day, and it doesn't have to be
available all the time.  Frequently, it isn't.  It is the DNS that
supports millions of transactions, and it is replicated.  

Please note carefully Miltion, that the highly reliable, highly
available dns service of NSI's registry is in large part provided
on a not-for profit, volunteer basis on the part of the root and TLD 
server operators.  The buggy, and unreliable part comes from NSI, 
the for-profit in the mix.  (I'm simplifying, of course, but it is 
important to remember that the base of the global DNS *is* run as a 
public service kind of thing, and it runs very well indeed.)

But the registry database only needs to be accessed when 1) dumps for
whois and dns servers are run (bulk reports); and 2) when registry
information is actually added, deleted, or modified -- on the order
of 100,000 accesses per day, maybe.  Less than one per second.  A PC
can easily handle rates of 1 transaction per second.  (The hardware
base used by Emergent for the first version of the CORE registry,
which was sized to match NSI, was Sun servers worth ~$50-70K). 

There are other considerations that require more power, of course.  
But the registry database is indeed, as these things go, relatively 
trivial. 

[...]
> 
> Incidentally, one unobserved side effect of the compulsory intermediary model is
> that the software for the interface is a monopoly, also. Every registrar must use
> NSI's proprietary software, which it claims to have spent $25 million on.

Nope.  The NSI situation is an anomaly, because NTIA was outclassed 
in the negotiations.  The obvious solution was to use open standards.

[...]
> 
> Incidentally, isn't the annual cost for a domain name registration in dot UK, a
> shared registry, MORE than NSI's evil, monopolistic $35 per year? I look forward to
> your spin on that one, Kent.

The Nominet registry will sell directly to end users, but at a rate
far higher than the going going rate -- 40 pounds/year.  This is to
guarantee that the registry doesn't compete with the "registration 
agents" (the equivalent of "registrar"s).  The "wholesale" rate is 
far less -- 10 pounds per year.  (Far less than NSI's rate), and 
this is much more in line with what end-users pay.
 
Moreover, Nominet is a not-for-profit, and it is widely acknowledged
(by Nominet) that this wholesale rate is far too high -- they have a
considerable operating surplus.  They know that it is necessary for
them to lower their rates, and the new rates will probably be in the
same range as the German registry's.

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain