On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, Brad Verd wrote:

To All,

VeriSign GRS will be making several changes to the COM, NET, ORG and EDU zone files.

I think the proposed changes are an excellent idea, providing of course that the proposed new zone format is adequately tested for interoperability before it's deployed.

2. Eliminate Orphan A Records

The current zone generation process publishes A (address) records (also called glue records) regardless of whether the name server is referenced by any NS (name server) records. Put another way, an A record is published even if no zone delegations reference it. These A records are called orphans, and their presence in the COM/NET/ORG zones is undesirable for both administrative and technical reasons

Again, an excellent suggestion. In fact, our organization has been trying for months to get you guys to delete some host records for old name servers we've retired, and haven't gotten a whole lot of cooperation. Can you give me a contact person who would be willing to work with me on this? I have two sets of servers to delete, those with no domains delegated to them, and those with rogue, unauthorized domains who have listed my name servers without permission. I can provide more information in private. Doug