Etisalat and ISC install Middle East's first Root Name Server

Redwood City, CA -- The region's Internet users served by Etisalat's Internet Network will now experience faster access to web sites following the installation of the Middle East's first Root Name Server mirror site in the UAE, according to Etisalat's UAEnic (United Arab Emirates Network Information Center), the .ae administrator of the UAE. Previously queries from this region took an average 214ms (round trip) and were answered in New York, USA; now the queries will take an average 3ms (round trip) and will be answered locally in Dubai. This is a 71% increase in response time for this region and users should notice the increase in performance.

To be installed and operated by ISC, the server will store a series of web addresses for identifying and distributing top level Internet domain names, for example '.net' or '.com'. This enables it to find sites fast by first finding the relevant domain server, then working its way down to the lowest level through a succession of servers. It will mirror the F-root server, one of 13 Root Name Servers around the world that control and organize accessibility to the world's web sites

"Root Name Servers control and organize accessibility to the world's web sites by referring users to relevant generic and country specific authoritative servers that store the web sites they are trying to access, "commented Abdulla Hashim, Manager, UAEnic. "The installation of the mirror Root Name Server will ensure users will access web addresses faster and enhance the performance and accessibility of the web servers and mail servers."

Joao Damas, ISC Senior Programme Manager, added, "We are excited to bring the F-root server to the Middle East and be able to dramatically enhance the Internet performance for the region. This server is one more step in our goal to strengthen the root name server network by providing it with more points to deflect malicious attacks on the foundation of the Internet."

Any other country or Internet service provider that uses Etisalat's international Internet infrastructure to connect to the global Internet via the UAE's Network Access Point (NAP), operated by Etisalat's Unit

EMIX, will be able to benefit from the installation. Customers including Kuwait, Oman, Zanzibar, Sudan and Pakistan will experience faster access to sites and more reliable connection to the Internet; as the mirror of root name server is physically collocated in the EMIX Backbone as part of its infrastructure.

Other Root Name Servers are located at key Internet hubs around the globe. Ten are located in the United States, whilst Japan, the UK and Sweden each have one. Previously, the region's Internet users had to access these Root Name Servers overseas in order to access the addresses of registered domains. With the recent local installation of the mirror site this will be done locally, improving access time and accessibility.

The need for a Root Name Server is often not readily apparent to the average user as it operates on the backbone of the Internet and is not visible. By being the first in the Middle East to install and operate a Mirror Root Name Server, Etisalat and UAEnic is aiming to further position the UAE as the Internet hub for the region.

"The main advantage of installing the server is robustness and reliability," added Hashim. "This enables us to put the country on the global cyber map and raise our profile as an advanced Internet enabled country."

About UAEnic

In May 1995, the United Arab Emirates Network Information Centre (UAEnic), part of Etisalat (Emirates Telecommunications Company) started handling the registry operations of the Internet domain name for .ae Top Level Domain. Now with over 11,000 domain names registered, it handles the day-to-day operations of Domain Name Registration services and also acts as a Local Internet Registry, where it assigns IP Address to the Local Internet Community.
For further information please contact Hatem Al Taie, PR Manager, EIM, on telephone +011 971 4 202 5595, or fax 971 4 295 8485 or e-mail altaie1@emirates.net.ae. www.nic.ae.

About ISC

ISC was founded in 1993 to develop and publish high quality reference implementations of core Internet protocols including DNS and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). ISC operates one of the 13 root DNS servers as a public service to the Internet. ISC has operated F.root-servers.net for IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) since 1993. F-root answers more than 272 million DNS queries per day, making it one of the busiest DNS servers in the world. F-root is a virtual server made up of multiple systems and runs ISC BIND 9 as its DNS server. ISC's DNS implementation, called BIND, was originally developed at UC Berkeley as part of the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) system, and has subsequently been completely rewritten at ISC. Most DNS servers on the Internet run BIND or BIND-derived software. ISC's reference implementation of DHCP is the de facto standard for all UNIX and UNIX-like systems including Linux and BSD.
For more information:
ISC: www.isc.org
Joao Damas, ISC Senior Programme Manager, at joao_damas@isc.org
Media Contact: Carol Nash, ISC, 408-859-4537, carol_nash@isc.org