phil@whistler.INTur.NET (Phil Howard) writes:

OTOH, some of us don't care about those root servers because we already know where our own root servers are. All but one of my DNS servers are grass roots servers. You can take down all the root servers, and if that didn't also take out the TLD (e.g. .COM, .NET, .ORG, .GOV) servers, then I won't notice it much (except to wonder why there is a dropoff in my load on smtp and http).

Yeah, I have this argument with the Bellheads all the time. We'll never have to worry because we all run our own SCP's. Tell Canada that. Its just the difference between a static cache and a dynamic cache. Whether you get the information on magtape from Bellcore, or via AXFRs from NSI, the data comes from somewhere. ObGeek: for those that care, the master copy of the north america 1-800/888/877 database is also in Saint Louis. For such a sleepy town, there are a lot of interesting technological knooks and cranies.

BTW, knowing where the main root servers are topologically is probably more dangerous than knowing where they all are physically. And that is information most everyone already has.

It is important to have both. You don't want all your name servers sitting in the same rack (plugged into the same 6-socket electric cord), nor do you want all your name servers sitting on the same subnet. It doesn't matter how many you have, if they all go away due to the same problem. $ whois intur.net Registrant: Inturnet, Inc. (INTUR-DOM) 811 Alpha Drive Suite 331 Richardson, TX 75081 USA Domain Name: INTUR.NET [...] Domain servers in listed order: NS1.INTUR.NET 206.97.151.9 NS2.INTUR.NET 206.97.151.8 NS3.INTUR.NET 206.97.151.14 NS4.INTUR.NET 206.97.151.15 -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation