A call for DNS secondaries to server for <dom>.freebsd.org

[Jordan K. Hubbard]

Hi folks,
 
We're trying to untangle some of the spaghetti that currently comprises
the mirror site list as well as start setting up regional www, ftp and sup
servers.  This is no longer just a good idea, it's getting to be a
necessity - connectivity between the U.S. and beyond (not to mention
*within* the U.S.) has gone rapidly downhill these last couple of months
and packet lossage is no minor problem for people trying to get to
our archive site(s).

Add to this the fact that our mirror site list is next to impossible
to memorize, and if you're at some customer site (or friends) and don't
have your handy list with you, you're left with ftp.freebsd.org or nothing.

I propose that we deal with all or most of these problems at the same
time by creating secondary name servers for each major subdomain.
We've already done this for .au (Australia), .br (Brazil), .fr (France)
and .it (Italy).  We should at least try to get all the countries who
currently have servers in MIRROR.SITES represented by their own domains
so that we can unify the ftp namespace in the same way that Netscape has -
e.g. the Japanese sites (for example) would become ftp.jp.freebsd.org,
ftp1.jp.freebsd.org, and so on.  This makes them both trivial to remember
and to cycle through when you're looking for a server with some slots free
in your country of origin.

Ideally, someday it will be possible to simply not think about this
anymore - wherever you are, {ftp,www,sup}.dom.freebsd.org will work.

I'm not sure what to do about the U.S. ftp servers except perhaps
to be U.S.-centric about it and just use the freebsd.org domain space
directly for U.S. resources.  Would people prefer to see ftp.us.freebsd.org?
It would seem to be adding unnecessary complexity.

In any case, I would be quite happy if the various FTP site admins could
discuss this among themselves and delegate one site per domain to serve
as the DNS server, reporting the details back to us (admin at freebsd.org)
once they're ready for us to add the entries to the freebsd.org domain.

We have it within our power to present a more organized global picture than
that of the Linux camp, so let's do it! :-)

						Jordan

P.S. Please watch the replies!  I have announce at freebsd.org in the envelope
and we don't want this thread to go there as well.  Thanks!