On Thu, 30 Apr 2015, Wilfred van Velzen wrote to mark lewis:

 ml> ath.cx is a DDNS service hosted in the Christmas Islands domain... 
 ml> i don't know if they (cx) actually run it or another 
 ml> individual/group... it used to be abuse by malware and virus 
 ml> distributing system but they may have cleaned that up... the 
 ml> network protections used over here used to block pretty much all 
 ml> ath.cx subdomains due to that abuse... if mike's system is still 
 ml> registered there as cco, it may be that his internet connection is 
 ml> down or the updater software needs to be run...

 WvV> Interesting background information! ;)

it has been acquired over the years i've been working with network security
operations...

 WvV> But "doesn't resolve" means that the dns system doesn't know how 
 WvV> to resolve the cco.ath.cx host name. Which means it doesn't exist 
 WvV> (anymore).

yes, i know that... what i was pointing to was if the domain had not been
updated within the timeout period... some DDNS services remove them while
others allow for them to point to another IP... the DDNS service i use
allows for this second option and we used to be able to specify that IP but
it has been years since i've been over there and check my records...

 WvV> "ath.cx" Is one of the domains of dyndns,

that's a piece of information that now falls into place... i wasn't sure
who was behind that domain... from what i remember, a BBS operator was
involved to some extent... kinda like the synchro.net DDNS ;) 

 WvV> so I think Mike had a free account there. Which ceased to exist 
 WvV> when they abolished free accounts. 

that's a logical conclusion... either he knows about it or he doesn't and
hasn't found another free service or hasn't decided to pay a small yearly
fee for the service...

)\/(ark