The Internet uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to associate the names of computers with their numeric IP addresses and with other information. The top level of the domain name hierarchy, the DNS root, contains the top-level domains that appear as the suffixes of all Internet domain names. The official DNS root is 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.
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) has spoken out strongly against alternate roots in RFC 2826.[1]
Description
The DNS root zone consists of pointers to the authoritative domain name servers for all TLDs (top-level domains). The root zone is hosted on a collection of root servers operated by several organizations around the world that all use a specific, approved list of domains that is managed by ICANN. By contrast, alternative roots typically include pointers to all of the TLD servers for domains delegated by ICANN, as well as name servers for other, custom top-level domains that are not sanctioned by ICANN. Some alternate roots are operated by the organizations that manage these alternative TLDs.
Alternative DNS roots may be characterized broadly as those run for idealistic or ideological reasons, run as profit-making enterprises, and those run internally by an organization for its own use.[citation needed]. During the dot-com boom, some alternate root providers[who?] believed that there were substantial profits to be made from providing alternative top-level domains.[citation needed]. Some of the Internet Community, have seen alternative DNS roots as beneficial to the Internet, and have run them in protest of centralized DNS control. Zach Bastick proposes that alternative DNS roots have allowed for more democratic control of the Internet:[2]
"The implementation of alternative gTLDs predates any significant debate on name space extension by official actors, and this exemplifies how democratising the DNS alters the pace of developing Internet policy, the nature of decisions that justify that policy development, and political dynamics and user autonomy in the network infrastructure." (p.103)
While technically trivial to set up, the maintenance of a reliable root server network is a serious undertaking.[citation needed] In order for the system to be effective, multiple servers must be run continuously without interruption in geographically diverse locations. Only a small portion of Internet service providers actually use any of the domains served by alternate root operators, generally supporting only ICANN-sanctioned root servers. This has led to the commercial failure of several alternative DNS root providers.[citation needed]
A top-level domain with the name biz, created by Pacific Root, was in operation before ICANN approved the official domain biz, operated by Neulevel. For some time after the creation of the official domain, several alternate roots continued to resolve the name to Pacific Root's servers rather than Neulevel's. Therefore, some domain names 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 alternate roots. Many of the alternate roots[who?] try to coordinate with each other, but many do not, and no conflict resolution processes exist between them.
Daftar/Tabel -- alternative roots
This section lists the known alternate DNS roots.
Active alternate root zones
Cesidian ROOT
www.cesidianroot.net — Cesidian Root
Global-Anycast
wiki.global-anycast.net — Global Anycast wiki page
NameCoin P2P DNS
dot-bit.org — Namecoin project wiki
Namecoin top-level domains are not managed by any single organization. Every Namecoin peer has a database copy. Forced work is used to prevent squatting and other kinds of abuse. Namecoin software allows domain registration under any top-level domain, but only .bit top-level domain is currently supported. Users may either use alternative DNS, DNS suffix, gateway, browser plugin or install Namecoin software and gain independent authentic view of namespace. In the latter case, Namecoin domains can't be disabled or transferred by an authority.
MobileTLD
www.mobiletld.com — MobileTLD
Name.Space
about.namespace.org — name.space
Name.Space was founded in 1996 and is a supplemental root that resolves the legacy root managed by ICANN as well as hundreds of other top-level domains. Name.Space used crowd sourcing to originate zones based on user demand.[3] Some of the zones managed by Name.Space include: .ART, .BOOKS, .CHAT, .DESIGN, .FILM, .GREEN, .HELP, .INC, .LAW, .MUSIC, .NEWS, .PRESS, .RADIO, .SHOP, .TALK, .UNION, .VIDEO, .WORLD, and .ZONE.[4]
NewNations
www.new-nations.net — NewNations
OpenNIC
www.opennicproject.org — The OpenNIC Project
Public-Root
public-root.com — Public-Root
UnifiedRoot
www.unifiedroot.com — UnifiedRoot
Inactive alternate root zones
AlterNIC
AlterNIC ceased operation in 1997.
expllclnxltdmednicnocpornxxx
eDNS
eDNS (Enhanced Domain Name Service) was founded by a coalition of ISPs led by Karl Denninger of the Chicago-area MCSNet.[5][6] It ceased operation in 1998.
biz — General business usecorp — For use by corporationsfam — For and about familyk12 — For and about childrennpo — Non-profit organizationsper — Personal Domain Name servicesweb — Web-based sites (Web pages)
Iperdome
Iperdome stopped in 1999.
per — Personal Domain Name services- see the announcement
- later the TLDs changed to:
biz — General business usecorp — For use by corporationsgay — For and about gay peoplek12 — For and about childrennpo — Non-profit organizationspol — Related to Poland and Polish organizationsweb — Web-based sites (Web pages)
Open Root Server Network
ORSN — a mirror of the ICANN root; terminated 31 December 2008.
Open RSC
Open RSC
One of the notable challengers to ICANN's control of the DNS namespace was Open RSC, a group that grew out of private discussions and developed into a public mailing list. It grew large enough that the group decided to submit an application to the United States government to run the DNS.[7]
The organization posted bylaws and articles of incorporation outlining ORSC's position following extensive public discussion regarding the manner in which the DNS was operated.[8][9]
ICANN chairwoman Esther Dyson acknowledged adopting features such as membership from ORSC in her response to the United States Department of Commerce.[10]
ORSC publishes a root zone containing additional top level domains not found in the official root zone:
per — personal pagesetc — anythingweb — for the Webshop — online shopspickle — funny namesco — for Scottish culturemail — a top-level domain for email, to reduce spam and clearly identify email servers.
See also
References
External links
