VeriSign Naming and Directory Services (VNDS) currently generates new versions of the .com/.net zones files twice per day. VNDS is scheduled to deploy on September 8, 2004 a new feature that will enable VNDS to update the .com/.net zones more frequently to reflect the registration activity of the .com/.net registrars in near real time. After the rapid DNS update is implemented, the elapsed time from registrars' add or change operations to the visibility of those adds or changes in all 13 .com/.net authoritative name servers is expected to average less than five minutes. The rapid update process will batch domain name adds and domain name changes every few seconds. The serial number in the .com/.net zones' SOA records will increase with each batch of changes applied. As described in a message to the NANOG list in January [1], these serial numbers are now based on UTC time encoded as the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch (00:00:00 GMT, 1 January 1970). VNDS will continue to publish .com/.net zone files twice per day as part of the TLD Zone File Access Program. [2] These zone files will continue to reflect the state of the .com/.net registry database at the moment zone generation begins. VNDS does not anticipate any negative consequences of deployment of rapid updates to the .com/.net zones. However, as a courtesy we are providing the Internet community with 60 days advance notice of the change to the update process. Some questions and answers about rapid updates for .com/.net are available at http://www.verisign.com/nds/naming/rapid_update/faq.html. Matt -- Matt Larson <mlarson@verisign.com> VeriSign Naming and Directory Services [1] http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2004-01/msg00115.html [2] http://www.verisign.com/nds/naming/tld/