On Tuesday, May 20, 1997 2:25 PM, Jim Fleming [SMTP:JimFleming@unety.net] wrote:

It would be good if the various continents had their own Root Name Server Confederations. If that were the case, traffic would not be shuttled across the various oceans just to give the illusion that there is operational redundancy.

But does the fact that these packets cross continents imply less redundancy ? Given the number of transatlantic cables in place and the new ones on the way, I do not think it is reasonable to assume that (in this instance) that all of Europe will disappear at once ?

To add European root name servers to the list that North American operators use does not do them a service.

Well, we Europeans have *suffered* because of the lack (all one of) non-North American root name servers. "You" did not seem so worried then (note the quotes around the word "you"). Distributing name servers is an operational issue, and given enough transit services to them, this is not really a redundancy problem, mearly political. Peter Galbavy Demon Internet Ltd http://www.demon.net/