Alternative DNS root
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The Internet uses a Domain Name System (DNS) root officially administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In addition, several organizations operate alternative DNS roots (often referred to as alt roots). These alternative domain name systems operate their own root nameservers and administer their own specific name spaces consisting of custom top-level domains (TLDs).
The Internet Architecture Board has spoken out strongly against alternate roots in RFC 2826, "IAB Technical Comment on the Unique DNS Root".
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Description
The DNS root zone consists of pointers to authoritative DNS servers for Generic Top Level Domain (like .com and .net) and Country Code Top Level Domain zones (like .us, .uk, and .tv). A collection of "traditional" root servers independently operated by many organizations around the internet use a list of these domains which is managed by ICANN. Alternative roots typically include pointers to all of the TLD servers delegated by ICANN, as well as TLD servers for other top-level domains (like .new, .nic, and .web) which are not delegated by ICANN, but run by other independent organizations. Some, but not all, alt-roots are operated by the organizations which in turn manage these alternative TLDs.
Alternative DNS roots can in general be divided into three groups: those run for idealistic or ideological reasons, those run as profit-making enterprises, and those run internally by an organization for its own use.
Whilst technically trivial to set up, actually running a reliable root server network in the long run is a serious undertaking, requiring multiple servers to be kept running 24/7 in geographically diverse locations. During the dot-com boom, some alt-root providers believed that there were substantial profits to be made from providing alternative top-level domains.
Only a small proportion of ISPs actually use any of the zones served by alt-root operators, generally sticking to the ICANN-specified root servers. This in turn led to the commercial failure of several alternative DNS root providers.
A .biz TLD created by Pacific Root was in operation before ICANN approved a .biz run by Neulevel, and for some time after the creation of the ICANN-sanctioned .biz several alt roots continued to resolve .biz to Pacific Root's rather than Neulevel's. There were therefore .biz domain names that existed in different roots and pointed to different IP addresses. The possibility of such conflicts, and their potential for destabilizing the Internet, is the main source of controversy surrounding alt roots. Many of the alternate roots try to coordinate with each other, but many do not - and they have no conflict resolution procedure between them.
List of alternative roots and the non-ICANN zones they include
This section lists the known alternate DNS roots, and for each root, lists the non-ICANN GTLDs which that root carries in addition to the ICANN-sanctioned GTLDs and ccTLDs.
Active public root zones
- Public-Root [1]
- Public-Root resolves all 5 kinds of TLDs globally. It is created to offer an alternative, open DNS infrastructure with its own 13 root servers around the world.
OpenNIC
Public Access Website: [2]
.bbs- aimed toward ( Telnet style ) Bulletin Board System servers, and affiliated/related/owned websites..dyn- Approved by the OpenNIC Community, and will be introduced in mid-2008. Used to resolve Dynamic DNS..free— non-commercial use of the internet.geek— anything geeky.glue— Sites related to infrastructure.indy— Independent News and Media.mud- Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension Role Playing Games ( under review ).null— miscellaneous non-commercial individual sites.oss— Open Source Software.parody— Parodies
See OpenNIC Wikipedia entry for further detail and historical information.
Open Root Server Network (ORSN)
(Shutdown 31.12.2008 00:00 UTC) Website: [3]
- Used to be a mirror of the ICANN root, but apparently[update] [1] still has .um and no IDN test TLD.
New.Net
Website: [4]
.agent—.arts—.auction—.chat—.shop—.free—.golf—.llc—.llp—.love—.ltd—.school—.scifi—.soc—.video—.travel— conflicts with ICANN-sanctioned TLD.tech—.kids—.church—.game—.mp3—.med—.mail-.xxx—.club—.inc—.law—.family—.sport—
UnifiedRoot
Website: [5]
- UnifiedRoot enables viewing of all existing TLDs and allows new TLDs to be registered at a cost of €750 each (plus annual maintenance fees of €250).
On the user side, it works by modifying the user's DNS settings to point at UnifiedRoot's servers; it also offers a downloadable tool to do this on Windows. UnifiedRoot have also made agreements with ISPs and telcos to enable access to the provided TLDs.[not in citation given]
Namespace
Website: [6]
- Resolves too many zones to be listed here.
MobileTLD
Website: [7]
- MobileTLD is a scam[citation needed] claiming to resolve domains for mobile devices, it is unrelated to .mobi.
Public root zones with an unknown status
Open Root Server Confederation (ORSC), website: [8]
.per— personal pages.etc— anything.web— for the web.shop— online shops.pickle— just a general funny name.sco— for Scottish culture.mail- a tld for email - to reduce spam and clearly identify email servers.
Inactive public root zones
AlterNIC (stopped in 1997)
.exp—.llc—.lnx—.ltd—.med—.nic—.noc—.porn—.xxx—
eDNS (stopped in 1998)
.biz— General business use.corp— For use by corporations.fam— For and about Family.k12— For and about Kids.npo— Non-profit organizations.per— Personal Domain Name services.web— Web-based sites (ie: web pages)
Iperdome (stopped in 1999)
.per— Personal Domain Name services- see the announcement
- later the TLDs changed to:
.biz— General business use.corp— For use by corporations.gay— For and about the Gay Community.k12— For and about Kids.npo— Non-profit organizations.pol— Related to Poland and Polish organizations.web— Web-based sites (ie: web pages)
Active private root zones
A number of organizations have alternative top-level domains configured on their internal DNS infrastructures, accessible only from within the enterprise. For instance, the National Security Agency operates the .nsa TLD; many NSA internal email addresses are of the form username@r21.r.nsa, mirroring the NSA organizational group structure.
Notes
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See also
External links
- UnifiedRoot
- OpenNIC Project Site
- Open Root Server Confederation
- Open Root Server Network (ORSN)
- Public-Root
- Cesidian Root
- Dns Advantage
- ORSN Discussed on CircleID
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