Fwd: The Root has got an A record

Mon Oct 10 15:55:43 UTC 2005

Joe Blanchard wrote:
> Hmm, B has the same one, and C has all the other Roots listed
> as A records. Would/could this really cause any sort of an issue
> though? 

Its not records like

a.public-root.net.      369     IN      A       205.189.71.2

that are the issue.  That's as it should be.  (Well... if you accept 
that public-root should be. ;-) )

This record, however, is not correct:

.                       172800  IN      A       57.67.193.188

That is the root.

For those of you who need reminding on how DNS works...

         .       the root
       / | \
      /  |  \
     /   |   \
   .com .net .org    top level domains
    |     |
    |     |
  yahoo  bgp4        domain names
    |      |
    |      |
   www    sea         host (or subdomain)

The trailing dot is left out in day to day use when we use URLS like 
www.yahoo.com - however, its really www.yahoo.com. - note the dot on the 
end.  That's the root.

Having an A record for the root is one better than having an A record 
for, say, .edu.  In other words, this shouldn't work:

[aura.sea.bgp4.net] (ciscogeek)  nslookup . a.public-root.net
Server:         a.public-root.net
Address:        205.189.71.2#53

Name:   .
Address: 57.67.193.188

As for what issues it could cause, I'm not sure.  I can't think of any 
off hand, but who knows what poorly written application may not be 
expecting an A record for the root.

For most people though, it doesn't matter, because they aren't using 
public-root in the first place.

I now return you to the Cogent/Level3 thread.