Sideways and slantways and longways and backways and squareways and frontways and any other ways that you can think of.

So this is hilarious.  I've updated a DNS entry on Afraid.org to point at a new server I've rented.  So I'm waiting for the address to propogate.  It's like watching the pot waiting for the water to boil (assuming you don't have an inductive stovetop).  Plus I'm extremely impatient when it comes to this kind of stuff.  Anyway...

I update the record.  Great!  Now let's go see if it's updated.  "ping foo.bar.com" I write.  It resolves.  To the old address.  That's fine, I'll check my email.  Nothing new.  "ping foo.bar.com."  Nada.  OK, I'm bored already, let's check with a tool online.  Using an online ping tool, I hit foo.bar.com at its new address.  Yay!  :)  "ping foo.bar.com"  WTF.  Still on the old address.  Well now this is silly.  Check my DNS servers and they're set to Google.  "ping google.com" Hmm, pings are really high for a DNS server (around 150ms) but just to be sure... "ping 8.8.8.8" (Google's public DNS address).  Still around 130ms.  Alright, I'll just be clever.  I like the reliability of Google's DNS but also the speed of the local DNS.  I'm used to being in the USA where latency is low enough no matter where you are.  Let's go see...

These are my current settings and guess what?

This is how I got them :)

Yota, my WiMAX provider, cheap as they are, decided to point EVERYONE'S DNS at Google.  Which would be fine!... If everyone were located in the US close to Google's servers.  :/  Basically this means that Yota doesn't have to pay for purchasing or operating a single DNS server in the entire country.  Which is pretty impressive really.  I just wish Google would catch on and co-locate a DNS server here at an exchange or something.

Anyway I just thought it was funny.  In the US, I'm used to always having to configure my router and/or clients to point at Google's DNS (it's more reliable AND returns legitimate "record not found" entries).  Here, with Yota, I have to change it to something more local.  It's hilarious.