My Letter to GKG and Their Response

Self

[Glenn]

It remains inoperable.

I was able to access it last evening and early this morning. Then, Blam! It wasn't in the DNS again. I am concerned it's rebroken.

[onyx]

What is the DNS?

[Glenn]

What is the DNS?

Simply put, it is the address book for the Internet. It translates "freerepublic.com" into an Internet address.

[onyx]

OK.
Thanks.
It is not working now.
That is a certainty.

[Cold Heat]

You must delete the links that led to the old address and replace them with the new one.

Sorta like changing a phone number. Our old phone number was disconnected by the DNS overlords.

[Cold Heat]

My access has been fine after I changed the settings. Might be a hiccup on your ISP end.

[Publius6961]

I am going to reserve judgement until the next time. If the shut down the site because someone misspelled "the", I will start having serious suspicions.

Someone mentioned a "mirror" site. That would be a great idea.

[Publius6961]

Does anyone know where GKG is located?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

I will be setting up a server here in the next month or so and iit "should" have the capacity to serve as an alternate site if you so desire - - -

Just wanted to thank you in advance for that generous offer.

God bless Freepers, and non-Freeper* allies around the world.

Thanks for the ping, devolve.

*Yet!

[Cold Heat]

Someone mentioned that this has happened often to other sites.

It seems a stretch that they would not have made more effort to reach Jim, but I view this as a good emergency practice. If this were to happen at a critical moment we will be much better prepared.

Actually, I never missed a beat.

I got the news before I even tried to access the site.

It was easy to copy and paste the URL into my browser and resave my favorite links.

I note the Bug Notifier is still not working. It will be a bit of time to get the words "free Republic" to be re-linked to the IRL I suspect.

209.157.64.200 just does not have the same ring to it!:-)

[Cold Heat]

http://www.gkg.net/

[mathluv]

That is how I got in yesterday. I still can't get in through normal means. I bookdmarked the 209 site yesterday, so I got in that way. I still get no server on the normal link.

[Cold Heat]

Here is their stated policies......for whatever it is worth)............

GKG clearly states our anti-spam philosophy and how we process all spam complaints in this Spam Policy, our Domain Registration Agreement and our Acceptable Use Policy.

As an ICANN accredited registrar, GKG is required to provide contact information (including email addresses) for all of our domain holders. Traditionally, this requirement enabled many spammers to maintain an ever-growing list of valid email addresses. This resulted in an effort by domain holders to provide false contact information to Registrars. In an attempt to remove the spammer's edge (while adhering to our accreditation agreements), GKG allows all domain holders to decide not to show their real email address in our whois database. Instead, an email alias is provided in the whois database. This email alias accepts mail, filters the mail for spam (discarding all mail determined to be spam) and delivers all mail determined to be non-spam.

GKG is required to accept and investigate all reports of inaccurate information of domain contacts as represented in our WHOIS database. In order to prevent flagrantly inaccurate WHOIS information, GKG utilizes custom filters that flag potentially inaccurate information for review.

In an attempt to prevent common spammer behavior, GKG does not provide our domain registration customers a way to delete domain registrations. This behavior allows spammers to delete a domain before action is taken against them and reregister the domain at a new Registrar.

Port 25 is forced to GKG's local SMTP mail server for all dial up Internet access customers. This requirement allows GKG to monitor mail closely for potential spamming behavior.

Furthermore, GKG provides a similar filtering service to all parking, hosting and Internet access customers. All mail received by one of these customers has been compared to a list of known spammers and filtered before delivery. Any email determined to be spam is marked by inserting *****SPAM***** into the message subject. This allows the customer to create a rule that automatically handles these emails.

While GKG's policies and services are important steps to combating spam, they are not perfect. However, GKG continues its anti-spam commitment. Comments or suggestions on how to improve our campaign are gladly accepted at support@gkg.net.

[Shooter 2.5]

I found the "my comments" page and the latest posts but I can't find the *Bang_List?

Does anyone have an idea where to go to find it?

I bookmarked so long ago, I don't recall where on FR to look for the lists.

[mathluv]

I read on another thread yesterday that some got on through a link at DU, because they were having a hugh laugh about FR being down.

[Cold Heat]

Try subbing the URL# for the words Free Republic.

I do not know if that will work yet though.

The linkages will have to be redone and I have no idea how long it will take.

Most of the links that I was using are still operational.

[hellinahandcart]

do a poster search on seamole, I think he had all the lists on his profile page.

[mathluv]

The contract is evidently through 2006. It was posted yesterday.

[Quix]

I THINK

the standby emergency offshore host in a VERY CONSERVATIVE but healthy country would be

A VERY WISE THING.

But I don't think John and Jim ought to be burndened with it other than to provide software if that would be practical.

I'd like to see a loose committee of FREEPERS with means take it upon themselves to set it up and maintain it.

I could imagine maybe Honduras or maybe a more conservative Central American country if there is one; Taipei; Chiang Mai, Thailand; ?Iceland?; Chile?; Perhaps Perth, Australia?; ???

I suppose even Mexico might work if the right locale could be found and enough $$$ spread around but that would be distasteful, to me, for sure.

Anyway--I just think this sort of problem is likely to get worse and worse and worse and that we need to proactively plan for it accordingly.

[mathluv]

How? I am in on the 209, can't get in on fr.com.