February 20, 2011 at 16:08Bit.ly offers alternative domains in connection with the riots in Libya
After the riots began in Libya, it became clear that the Internet would soon be disconnected in the country, as it was on January 27 in Egypt. Fearing such a development of events, many began to worry about their traffic: how will one of the most popular Bit.ly link shortener registered on the Libyan domain work on the Internet ? Indeed, in the same Egypt on January 27, DNS servers were unavailable.
On Saturday, the Internet in Libya was really turned off. But even a few hours before, the executive director of the Bit.ly service hastened to dispel concerns : Bit.ly's performance is practically not in danger.
In general, for Bit.ly or any other domain in the .ly zone to stop resolving, you need five DNS servers for the .ly zone offline. But unlike Egypt, the situation here is more reliable. Two of the Libyan DNS servers are located in Oregon, one in the Netherlands and two more in Libya.
True, the director of Bit.ly kept silent about who exactly controls the overseas .ly servers. If they are controlled from Libya, then their foreign location means little: one command shutdown -h now is enough.
In addition, the local dictator Gaddafi could theoretically deliberately return incorrect answers to DNS queries to Bit.ly for monetization or political propaganda. Due to these potential risks, the Bit.ly service offers to use spare domains: http://j.mp/ andhttp://bitly.com/ . Any link with bit.ly can be rewritten to j.mp, simply replacing the domain name.
More information about the unavailability of Egyptian DNS servers on January 27, 2011 can be found on this page .
On Saturday, the Internet in Libya was really turned off. But even a few hours before, the executive director of the Bit.ly service hastened to dispel concerns : Bit.ly's performance is practically not in danger.
In general, for Bit.ly or any other domain in the .ly zone to stop resolving, you need five DNS servers for the .ly zone offline. But unlike Egypt, the situation here is more reliable. Two of the Libyan DNS servers are located in Oregon, one in the Netherlands and two more in Libya.
True, the director of Bit.ly kept silent about who exactly controls the overseas .ly servers. If they are controlled from Libya, then their foreign location means little: one command shutdown -h now is enough.
In addition, the local dictator Gaddafi could theoretically deliberately return incorrect answers to DNS queries to Bit.ly for monetization or political propaganda. Due to these potential risks, the Bit.ly service offers to use spare domains: http://j.mp/ andhttp://bitly.com/ . Any link with bit.ly can be rewritten to j.mp, simply replacing the domain name.
More information about the unavailability of Egyptian DNS servers on January 27, 2011 can be found on this page .