DNS ROOT understanding

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Jonathan" == Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePollard at Tesco.NET> writes:

    Jonathan> Anyone who is concerned enough about "." content DNS
    Jonathan> service that they consider the step of regularly
    Jonathan> checking that it is there, should really be instead
    Jonathan> considering running *their own* (private) "." content
    Jonathan> DNS server, whose connectivity and fault tolerance they
    Jonathan> can manage themselves, replicating the DNS database of
    Jonathan> the "." organisation of their choice.

This is perhaps the most foolish piece of advice I've ever seen posted
here.

First of all it verges on the impossible that anybody -- and I mean
anybody -- could possibly run an instance of the root zone that
provides better connectivity and fault tolerance than the existing
internet root servers. There are now root servers in over 80 locations
around the world. [See http://www.root-servers.org.] Most of those
servers are in secure co-lo facilities and internet exchanges that
have lots of connectivity: bandwidth, peering, carriers, etc. They use
different hardware platforms, operating systems and DNS software. They
are operated and funded by diverse organisations, so that's not a
single point of failure either.

Secondly, the concept of an alternate root is an oxymoron.