Alternate DNS root server system to close

The Open Root Server Network (ORSN) is shutting down. After nearly six years of operation, it will close at midnight on the last day of 2008, said one of its coordinators, Paul Vixie.

Since 2002, the ORSN has operated a pool of DNS root servers – the master servers which are the authoritative record-keepers of the master list of internet domain names and which addresses they point to. The original root server pool is managed by ICANN and thus is controlled by the US government, a situation that many people feel is less than ideal. Although politically-motivated, the purpose of the ORSN was to be an independent, alternative service which provided the same facility as the real root servers, in contrast to many companies and bodies which have provided root servers for the purposes of introducing their own non-standard and unapproved top-level domains.

According to the announcement, "during the last months/years, the interest of our team shifted and so we could no longer fulfil our original goal of providing innovation." He goes on to say that this is due to a lack of volunteers to help with implementing or running the proposed new DNSSEC system for ORSN. This follows some controversy concerning who would control the master keys to the new DNSSEC system.

The ORSN is recommending that its users, which include some significant European Internet Service Providers, switch back to the ICANN-managed root servers.

(lghp)