Replacing the hints file with the top level zone speeds up lookups, and removes the burden from the root servers:
Only if you have an impressively broken DNS cache. The entries in the root zone (the real one) all have a TTL of 48 hours. Within about the first three seconds after you start your cache, it'll have data for com, org, net, arpa, edu, and whatever other TLDs your users use, and won't have to visit them again for two days. I looked at the stats from my DNS cache and 12 TLDs account for 95% of the lookups, with only 79 TLDs referenced at all. There just isn't much root zone data used.
I really don't want to start any discussions about the relative merits of the ICANN vs. ORSC vs. New.net vs. anything root zones, ...
Uh huh. -- John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail