Root Servers
The Root Servers are a network of DNS servers that are authoritative for the DNS Root Zone, that is, they serve delegation information for all TLDs in the DNS system.
There are currently 13 root name servers, named A through to M. These servers are operated by commercial, military and academic organisations (including VeriSign, ICANN, ISC and RIPE NCC) in a number of locations around the world. Several of the root servers use Anycast DNS to announce the same IP address from multiple locations on the public Internet, providing further reliability for the DNS root zone.
The operation of the root servers is overseen by IANA. The master root server, from which all the others load the root zone, is the A-root operated by VeriSign.
However, it is worth noting that the only reason these servers are the de facto root of the DNS system is that virtually all caching DNS servers have them pre-loaded in their "root hints" file - it is this fact that allows alternate DNS roots to exist.
[edit] External Links
- Root Servers Technical Operations Association (includes detailed information about all the current root servers)
ICANNwiki: An industry resource fostering global collaboration and transparency within the ICANN community
