LinkScan Technical Alert -- LinkScan 11.2a Available

First Issued: September 16, 2003
Last Updated: September 23, 2003, 17:00 PDT

Background

On September 15 and 16, 2003, changes were made to the Internet Domain Name Service (DNS) by VeriSign, Inc. VeriSign is the company responsible for managing all .com and .net addressing.

In short, VeriSign created wildcard records such that DNS lookups on a host within an invalid .com or .net domain will resolve to the IP address of a VeriSign operated server. Hence an invalid URL can direct web browsers to a valid web page published by VeriSign.

In the past, LinkScan would typically report a Possible Error on such links: 900 No DNS Entry. As a result of these changes LinkScan will see a valid web page and report no error at all. Users should be aware that other link checkers (and products that perform similar tasks) may also be impacted by VeriSign's actions.

Solution

We have released LinkScan 11.2a to address these difficulties. Elsop urges all users to install LinkScan Version 11.2a immediately. This version incorporates enhancements which will detect URL's that would otherwise trigger the wildcard records so that LinkScan will once again correctly report an error.

No configuration changes are required; the new wildcard detection logic is enabled automatically for all URL's within the .com and .net Top Level Domains (TLD's).

However, users may optionally enable wildcard detection on other TLD's such as cc. Simply add a directive to linkscan.sys such as:

Wildtlds = com, net, cc

Users that wish to disable this logic (e.g. in the event that VeriSign withdraw the wildcard records) may add this directive to linkscan.sys.

Wildtlds = 0

LinkScan 11.2a is a free upgrade for all users who have purchased LinkScan 10.x or 11.x. Customers who own licenses for earlier versions of LinkScan should see LinkScan Upgrades for further information.

Download LinkScan 11.2a

LinkScan for Windows Systems

• LinkScan 11.2a: linkscan.exe Approx 3600 KBytes

LinkScan for Unix Systems

• LinkScan 11.2a: linkscan.tar.gz Approx 1800 KBytes

Please direct any comments or questions to [email protected]