News and Updates

This page will serve to detail news and updates relevant to Sainternet such as new features and developments, planned maintenance, etc.

• A Very Good Boy
• Old Blog, New Tricks
• Every Cat Deserves Scritches, Always
• Some Pun About Blocks or Blocking
• The Polish Invasion of 2023
• CERTain Doom
• Une Pokédex, S'il Vous Plaît
• Analytics Disclosure
• PWA!

• Dev Diary
• Archived Posts

A Very Good Boy

first posted on Wednesday, 11 October 2023 22:30+13:00 (NZDST)

Willow (Bill) Pearce

In memory of Willow (Bill) Pearce, age 15, 11 October 2023.

We mourn the loss, as well as celebrate the life of, my very best friend Willow (Bill) Pearce who would have been taken from this life too soon at any age.

I love you so very much my boy.

Old Blog, New Tricks

first posted on Wednesday, 13 September 2023 00:20+12:00 (NZST)
updated on Thursday, 21 September 2023 23:55+12:00 (NZST)

If you Connect to Sainternet using a domain and an Encrypted DNS protocol, it is now possible to add an unfiltered identifier to your query destination for (mostly) unfiltered DNS resolution.

Minor filtering is performed for rate limiting and abuse mitigation, but otherwise no blocking is performed.

Notes:

• Hover or mouse-over encryption links to show sainternet DNS query paths.
• For Android Private DNS use just the unfiltered.dns.sainternet.xyz domain without proto://, /path or :port sections.
• Filtered DNS resolution is available via dns.sainternet.xyz.

Every Cat Deserves Scritches, Always

first posted on Thursday, 1 June 2023 00:20+12:00 (NZST)
updated on Tuesday, 17 October 2023 21:00+12:00 (NZDST)

The ECDSA certificate transition for dns.sainternet.xyz DNS is live.

Some Pun About Blocks or Blocking

first posted on Monday, 8 May 2023 16:40+12:00 (NZST)

Have you ever wondered what it might look like to graph the rate of blocked queries on dns.sainternet.xyz?

Even if you haven't, if you keep reading you're going to see it anyway.

Since dns.sainternet.xyz uses FTLDNS, with its API and a little bit of some bash, we can do so and check the percentage of blocked queries (and more) periodically and graph them using Munin.

The following graphs depict smoothed output polled at five minute intervals.

Day

Blocked queries as a percentile, by day.

Week

Blocked queries as a percentile, by week.

Month

Blocked queries as a percentile, by month.

Year

Blocked queries as a percentile, by year.

The Polish Invasion of 2023

first posted on Sunday, 6 May 2023 21:00+12:00 (NZST)

Poddaję się!

According to Google Translate at least, that is Polish for "I surrender!". Now let me explain why that might be relevant.

Some time ago, I started collecting analytics on sainternet.xyz using Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager. A short while afterwards, I observed something unexpected. Poland.

Naturally, as the author and maintainer of sainternet.xyz and dns.sainternet.xyz is based in New Zealand, with the largest single contributor to the userbase known to said author also being from New Zealand, we should expect to see New Zealand represented as such in the site analytics, but no. Poland.

My first thought was that this was surely some mistake. Perhaps sainternet.xyz is similar to some other domain used in the locality. Perhaps a VPN provider? That must be it, your author concluded. Yet on further examination not only was the single largest contributor over the past three months Poland, visitors from Poland also tended to stay longer than some others on average, and overwhelmingly preferred the Connect to Sainternet page over any other. This appears to display a clear intent.

Let's take a look at the rest of the data, as it also had a few more surprises in store for me.

Table Polish

(Get it? Because it's a table, and… Eh. I'll see myself out.)

I have included only the results which:

1. Were at or above 2% of total hits
2. I thought were interesting or otherwise significant

CERTain Doom

first posted on Monday, 1 May 2023 21:00+12:00 (NZST)

What Is Happening?

Starting at approximately midnight Thursday, 1 June 2023 (NZST) all certificates related to dns.sainternet.xyz will be gradually transitioned from RSA (2048) to ECDSA (secp256r1).

Okay, Why?

In simpler terms, there are two types of digital certificates that help ensure secure connections on the internet. RSA used to be the most popular one because it offered a good balance between security, compatibility, and speed. But now, a newer one called ECDSA is widely supported in modern web software and offers even better security and speed. So, it's a good idea to make ECDSA the default certificate type to help people benefit from its improved security and performance.

What Does This Mean for Me?

Top text: Some of you may die,
Bottom text: but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.

It's important to note that while transitioning to the newer ECDSA certificate type may provide enhanced security and performance benefits, it may negatively affect some clients, particularly those using legacy Android devices (Android 7.1 and lower).

This is because some older versions of Android do not support ECDSA and may not be able to establish a secure connection with websites using this certificate type. As a result, users may experience issues accessing certain websites or services that have switched to ECDSA.

I understand and appreciate that some users may be concerned about the potential loss of access to the service as a result of the upcoming key change.

I want to reassure you that this decision was not made lightly and was carefully considered with the best interests of dns.sainternet.xyz users and the internet as a whole in mind. The transition to the newer ECDSA certificate type will provide significant security and performance benefits that will help protect users' data and improve their overall browsing experience. I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition and will work to minimise any disruption to users.

Your patience and understanding is appreciated while navigating this important change.

Enable JavaScript

first posted on Tuesday, 25 April 2023 01:15+12:00 (NZST)

sainternet.xyz leans on JavaScript fairly heavily for function and performance.

Consider allowing JavaScript to run on sainternet.xyz for the best experience.

Une Pokédex, S'il Vous Plaît

first posted on Tuesday, 11 April 2023 01:00+12:00 (NZST)
updated on Friday, 2 June 2023 00:15+12:00 (NZST)

Pokémon Name to National Pokédex Number (NPN) queries using dns.sainternet.xyz DNS Pokédex over DNS now support multiple languages. English (US), Japanese (roomaji), French and German.

NPN to Pokémon Name queries now give a response featuring all supported languages in the following format.

"US: pokemonname, JP: pokemonname, FR: pokemonname, DE: pokemonname"

The following examples show lookups using US, JP, FR and DE Pokémon Names respectively.

Example Pokédex over DNS queries using dig:

National Pokedex

dig +short txt 265.pokedex @dns.sainternet.xyz

English US

dig +short txt wurmple.pokedex @dns.sainternet.xyz

Nihon

dig +short txt kemusso.pokedex @dns.sainternet.xyz

Français

dig +short txt chenipotte.pokedex @dns.sainternet.xyz

Deutsch

dig +short txt waumpel.pokedex @dns.sainternet.xyz

Example Pokédex over DNS queries using dnslookup:

National Pokédex

RRTYPE=TXT dnslookup 265.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

English US

RRTYPE=TXT dnslookup wurmple.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Nihon

RRTYPE=TXT dnslookup kemusso.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Français

RRTYPE=TXT dnslookup chenipotte.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Deutsch

RRTYPE=TXT dnslookup waumpel.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Example Pokédex over DNS queries using nslookup

National Pokedex

nslookup -type=txt 265.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

English US

nslookup -type=txt wurmple.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Nihon

nslookup -type=txt kemusso.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Français

nslookup -type=txt chenipotte.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Deutsch

nslookup -type=txt waumpel.pokedex dns.sainternet.xyz

Analytics Disclosure

first posted on Wednesday, 15 February 2023 01:00+13:00 (NZDT)

As of approximately 00:00+13:00 (NZDT) Tuesday, 14 February 2023 all pages on this site implemented anonymous metrics collection using Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager.

This decision was made to better understand how users are discovering and accessing sainternet.xyz, in order to improve these user experiences.

But wait, doesn't dns.sainternet.xyz block Google Analytics and many more telemetry services from functioning?

Good question. Yes. Yes it does.

That's the beauty of it, and the reason I had no qualms about implementing this. Once you're using dns.sainternet.xyz, analytics collection on this site is rendered entirely ineffective.

PWA!

first posted on Sunday, 22 January 2023 06:00+13:00 (NZDT)

No, it's not a visual sound effect from Adam West's Batman.

It's progressive, it's a webpage, it's an app. It's a Progressive Web App!

Continuing the trend in honing my skills and adopting modern concepts in the Sainternet ecosystem, and given that this site gradually met all the conditions required in order to do so, you can now install this website as an Android, Chrome or Chromium application^₁.

Why would you want to? Who knows. The point is you can. Behind the scenes the site is also more secure, and now slicker than ever.

1. Support on iOS, macOS, and Windows I am not entirely confident about