ISC and APNIC expand DNS root server footprint with deployment of new F-root services in Seoul

Redwood City, CA -- ISC (ISC) and APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre) announce deployment of a new F-root server in Seoul. This server was deployed as part of a regional effort involving APNIC and ISC, with KRNIC (Korean Network Information Center) providing secure hosting premises and Internet connectivity. The new server will handle DNS queries for the large concentration of Internet users in Korea as well as for the surrounding areas.

Paul Wilson, Director General, APNIC, commented, "I am extremely happy to be working closely with KRNIC and ISC on this important project, which will improve DNS stability and response times for the very large Korean Internet community. This is part of APNIC's wider responsibility to facilitate regional Internet development, and an activity which produces very significant benefits at a relatively small cost."

This is the second F-root server to be installed and operational under the original agreement announced in November 2002 between ISC and APNIC. The first F-root server was installed in Hong Kong in November 2002. By installing the second server in Seoul the organizations are able to reach the largest possible ISP community, including diverse IP transit providers, and neutral IP/BGP Internet exchanges. Every effort will be made to see root DNS queries answered locally for as many ISPs as possible.

Joao Damas, ISC Senior Programme Manager, added, "Our continuous deployment of F-root server mirrors around the world is increasing the survivability of the network in the event of future attacks on the DNS system. We are also increasing regional independence by transferring knowledge to each region and improving overall Internet service in each region."

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 answers more than 272 million DNS queries per day, making it one of the busiest DNS servers in the world.

F is a virtual server made up of multiple systems and runs ISC BIND 8.3.3 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 contact Joao Damas, ISC Senior Programme Manager, at Joao_Damas@isc.org or visit www.isc.org.

About APNIC

APNIC, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, is one of the three regional Internet registries in the world, responsible for providing vital resource allocation and registration services to the Asia Pacific Internet community. APNIC is a not-for-profit membership organization, whose members determine the policies and direction of the organization through open self-regulatory processes.

For more information contact Paul Wilson, Director General, at dg@apnic.net or visit www.apnic.net. Media Contact: Carol Nash, ISC, 408-859-4537, carol_nash@isc.org