Statements against new.net?

Tue Mar 13 23:44:30 UTC 2001

> (yes, I'm obviously idealistic and naive to think that even a significant
> majority of NANOG readers could even agree on which way is up, but I think
> enough people agree on this issue that we don't necessarily have
> to sit back
> and let "the market" make decisions that will have real operational impact
> for the foreseeable future. We can make those decisions ourselves.)

Yes we can make those decisions.  So set up your own root server (maybe two
or three) on your piece of the net, pick a source for an inclusive root
zone, and start slaving it (be sure to edit the glue to point to your own
roots).  That takes care of any doubts you might have about the resiliancy
of the inclusive roots, since you are running the roots your caches use.
Better yet, start out with the root.zone from ftp.internic.net, add
delegations for the expanded set of TLDs, install in private root server.
This can all be automated to happen twice a day.  Point your caches at it,
tell your users about it, and be happy.

What is the big deal?  It's a 60K text file, it's not like the old
hosts.txt, it doesn't need to list every host on the Internet, just the TLD
glue, and there's only 253 of those in the ICANN root zone.  Is that so hard
to deal with?  We're all flummoxed by a 60K text file? The internet comes to
a halt because of a 60K text file?

Right now, you depend on a single party to provide 13 servers to start
recursing from. Is that a risk-free arrangement for the long run?  Can you
imagine something more resilient?  Do you have an SLA with Verisign for root
service?  Think you're going to get one?  You have one with your upstream,
perhaps, and with other vendors that are essential to your operations.

So, what if an inclusive root server operator offered a SLA for root zone
service?  Is that at all interesting?  There are any number of things people
can come up with, if they use their imagination, and shed for a moment the
idea that there must be one root, and only one.  If the root zone is so
important, why do people not demand the same level of service that they
demand elsewhere?

If I may borrow a line from The Matrix:  Free Your Mind.
(that was kinda corny, I apologize :)

>
> --
> Scott Francis           scott@   [work:] v i r t u a l i s . c o m
> Systems Analyst     darkuncle@   [home:] d a r k u n c l e . n e t
> PGP fingerprint 7ABF E2E9 CD54 A1A8 804D  179A 8802 0FBA CB33
> CCA7
>                illum oportet crescere me autem minui
>
>