Wed Sep 17 17:01:04 PDT 2003 — DNS server changes: As some of you may be aware, VeriSign, who controls the .net and .com DNS registries, recently changed the behavior of their gTLD servers to capture web traffic destined to non-existent domains with their own ‘sitefinder’ portal. Sonic.net, and many other service providers, are concerned by VeriSign’s actions which, we believe, have had far-reaching negative affects on the Internet at large. In order to restore what we feel is the correct behavior of the .net and .com gTLD name servers on our network we replaced BIND on our name servers with a patched version that enforces receiving delegation-only responses from these servers.

For more information about this please see news://news.sonic.net/sonic.net

-Kelsey

Wed Sep 17 16:24:36 PDT 2003 — Altnews.sonic.net service issues: The out sourced NNRP provider that services altnews.sonic.net is currently reporting authentication problems for connections from our network. We’ve brought on another out sourced NNRP provider available at newscene.sonic.net in response to altnews’ (webusenet/ispnews) ongoing stability problems. For more information please see our support FAQs and news://news.sonic.net/sonic.net -Sonic Operations

Tue Sep 16 11:56:09 PDT 2003 — OpenSSH exploit in the wild. There are reports of a worm in the wild that exploits a bug in OpenSSH. Folks running OpenSSH are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the very latest version, and examine their machine for intrusion problems.

All vulnerable Sonic.net hosts have either been upgraded or firewalled, preventing intrusion on these Sonic.net servers. -Kelsey and Scott

Sun Sep 14 12:18:47 PDT 2003 — custsql.sonic.net (aka timber) public MySQL server is currently offline due to some kind of hardware failure. We’ll be swapping the hardware out with spares and should have services restored shortly. -Kelsey

UPDATE Sun Sep 14 13:04:06 PDT 2003 — The MySQL server has been replaced with new hardware and is currently back-online. Please report any issues to support. -Kelsey

Fri Sep 12 08:11:32 PDT 2003 — Extended maintenance report from carrier. One of our providers has been performing maintenance that has lasted longer than their expect window. Our redundant connections via multiple carriers and transport providers has insulated us from a service affecting situation. -Operations

Wed Sep 10 18:10:10 PDT 2003 — New Microsoft RPC vulnerability. Microsoft announced today a new vulnerability in Windows NT, 2000, XP and others that is very similar to the security flaw that the Blaster worm used. Patches for this new flaw have been released and are available at Windows Update ( windowsupdate.microsoft.com ) and we urge our customers to patch their systems immediately. — Eli, Support

Wed Sep 10 14:11:04 PDT 2003 — Web Server Instability: Over the past few days we have been seeing some instability in our webserver cluster that has been resulting in periodic slow downs or refused connections. We have disabled a suspect user cgi that appears to have been accidentally DoSing the servers. -Sonic Operations

Thu Sep 4 12:24:15 PDT 2003 — Barham tower outage continues. Broadlink’s Barham tower is still out of service; technicians are working on the problem and Broadlink expects to have service restored late this afternoon. -Sonic.net and Broadlink Operations

UPDATE 17:12:25 PDT 2003: Broadlink technicians are still working on the damaged tower; service has not been restored. We will post an update here as soon as we have more information. -Sonic.net and Broadlink Operations

Thu Sep 4 19:38:05 PDT 2003 — Barham tower back in service. Broadlink was able to replace the last of the damaged equipment this afternoon, later than expected because the damage was more severe than initial inspection showed. Testing was carried out this early evening and there should be no further issues. -Sonic.net and Broadlink Operations

Wed Sep 3 10:22:36 PDT 2003 — Power outage in San Francisco. A power switching error this morning at one of our San Francisco facilities caused a short outage of all services at that location. This included all dialup lines whose number ends in 3, eg., 707-522-1003. Power has been restored and there should be no further problems. -Kelsey, Nathan and John