Re: [Freeciv-Dev] request for Freeciv metaserver to be moved

[Nick Lamb <njl98r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 19 Jan 1999, Reinier Post wrote:

> It may be possible technically; not politically.

What are you talking about? It is trivial technically, and anyone who's
ever run a DNS server will be able to show you how to do round-robin DNS
for the metaserver. There is ABSOLUTELY NO NEED for the reverse entries
to point at the metaserver name, in fact that is undesirable. There is
no political problem with the DNS entries. Political problems would only
arise if someone volunteers to run a metaserver without authority to do
so (e.g. University undergrads might not be supposed to run arbitrary
server code and advertise it to the whole planet).

If you're suggesting that DNS admins can somehow prevent you from pointing
into "their" IP space, I suggest you look at some of the anti-Microsoft
sites, many of which have links to www.microsoft.com under another name :)

IMHO The right way to do this is the simple way...
----
Metaserver DNS entry becomes a round-robin used by clients & servers. If
a client can't connect to the address it's offered, it can ask DNS for
another address, and try again. e.g. 172.16.0.1 is down, ask again and
try 172.16.4.6. Similarly for servers, announcements can be sent to first
address, and if that fails ask DNS for a new address and retry.

Metaservers keep track of the _whole_list_ of metaservers (probably only
three or four at most) and when they get new info they pass it on to the
rest of the list (those which are awake). So, very soon after a server
is announced to one metaserver, all metaservers will know about it.

The effect of this is:
* Existing clients & servers work.
* Future clients & servers cope seamlessly with Metaserver problems
* No change to UI for users (same old Metaserver dialog)
* DNS entry added centrally for two or three backup Metaservers
* Small change needed to metaserver. Then distribute code to two or
three volunteers with good connectivity.

Of course, I'm not the one contributing code... but I could possibly be
owner of one of the metaservers, depending on who else is offering.

Nick.