Description
The DNS root zone consists of pointers to the authoritative domain name servers for all TLDs (top-level domains). The root zone is hosted on a collection of root servers operated by several organizations around the world that all use a specific, approved list of domains that is managed by ICANN.
Alternative roots typically include pointers to all of the TLD servers for domains delegated by ICANN, as well as name servers for other, custom top-level domains that are not sanctioned by ICANN. Some alternate roots are operated by the organizations that manage these alternative TLDs.
Alternative DNS roots may be characterized broadly as those run for idealistic or ideological reasons, run as profit-making enterprises, and those run internally by an organization for its own use.
While technically trivial to set up, the maintenance of a reliable root server network is a serious undertaking. In order for the system to be effective, multiple servers must be run continuously without interruption in geographically diverse locations.
During the dot-com boom, some alternate root providers believed that there were substantial profits to be made from providing alternative top-level domains.
Only a small portion of Internet service providers actually use any of the domains served by alternate root operators, generally supporting only ICANN-sanctioned root servers. This has led to the commercial failure of several alternative DNS root providers.
A top-level domain with the name biz, created by Pacific Root, was in operation before ICANN approved the official domain biz, operated by Neulevel. For some time after the creation of the official domain, several alternate roots continued to resolve the name to Pacific Root's servers rather than Neulevel's. Therefore, some domain names existed in different roots and pointed to different IP addresses. The possibility of such conflicts, and their potential for destabilizing the Internet, is the main source of controversy surrounding alternate roots. Many of the alternate roots try to coordinate with each other, but many do not, and no conflict resolution processes exist between them.
Read more about this topic: Alternative DNS Root
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