Domain Name System 0 Concept Map

8 standards
organizations include ISoc
originally chartered
charters
members form 243 active ccTLDs
.ac Ascension Island (licensed) 28

rely on
Internet Society (ISoc) is a professional
A concept map is a web of terms. Verbs .ad Andorra
This diagram is a model of the Domain connect nouns to form propositions.
membership society with more than 150
.ae United Arab Emirates
organizations and 11,000 individual mem-
Name System (DNS), a system vital to the Groups of propositions form larger struc- bers from over 182 countries.
.af Afghanistan 27
tures. Examples and details accompany .ag Antigua and Barbuda
smooth operation of the Internet. The goal most terms. More important terms re- .ai Anguilla
of the diagram is to explain what DNS ceive visual emphasis; less important 11 .al Albania

is, how it works, and how it’s governed.

terms, details, and examples are in gray. IETF sponsors working groups are managed by IESG decisions can be appealed to IAB provides advice to IANA functions were moved to .am Armenia
Terms related to names and addresses .an Netherlands Antilles

write

approves
(the heart of DNS) are in blue. Terms Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Internet Engineering Steering Internet Architecture Board (IAB) Internet Assigned Numbers .ao Angola
The diagram knits together many facts is a voluntary, non-commercial organization Group (IESG) Authority (IANA) originally handled .aq Antarctica
followed by a number link to terms pre-
about DNS in hopes of presenting a com- ceded by the same number. comprised of individuals concerned with the many of the functions that are now 626,000 .ar Argentina
evolution of the architecture and operation ICANN’s responsibility. ICANN hired .as American Samoa
prehensive picture of the system and the Begin reading anywhere you like or from of the Internet. 16 many of IANA’s staff. 272,000 .at Austria
context in which it operates. the top or from the word “people.” 1
10 specify rules for assignments made by
342,895 .au Australia 27
.aw Aruba
implementors include ISC implements standards defined in RFCs related to DNS include RFC 779 “Internet Name Domains,” outlined the problem, 9/81
.az Azerbaijan
RFC 819 “The Domain Naming Convention for Internet User Applications,” 8/82, first defined ... DNS 0

maintains
Implementors write software based Internet Software Consortium (ISC) is a Requests for Comments (RFCs) document .ba Bosnia and Herzegovina
RFC 881 “The Domain Names Plan and Schedule,” 11/83, updated by RFC 897
on standards—that is, they implement non-profit corporation that develops and technical and organizational aspects of .bb Barbados
RFC 882 “Domain Names - Concepts And Facilities,” 11/83, updated by RFC 1034
the standards. Other implementors maintains reference implementations of the Internet. .bd Bangladesh
RFC 883 “Domain Names - Implementation And Specification,” 11/83, updated by RFC 1035
include Cisco and Microsoft as well as core Internet protocols—and makes 238,000 .be Belgium
RFC 973 “Domain System Changes and Observations,” 1/86
smaller firms such as Men & Mice. them available for free. 23 .bf Burkina Faso
RFC 974 “Mail Routing And The Domain System,” 1/86, ... authored by 33
.bg Bulgaria
RFC 1034 “Domain Names - Concepts And Facilities,” 11/87
.bh Bahrain
BIND is used by most ... name servers 21 RFC 1035 “Domain Names - Implementation And Specification,” 11/87, defines many ... record types 25
.bi Burundi 27
RFC 1591 “Domain Name System Structure and Delegation,” 3/94
.bj Benin

United States
Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND): RFC 1886 “DNS Extensions to support IP version 6,” 12/95
.bm Bermuda
name server, resolver library, and tools. RFC 2065 “Domain Name System Security Extensions,” 1/97, see also RFC 2136, 2137, 2535, 3007, 3008
.bn Brunei Darussalam
RFC 2870 “Root Name Server Operational Requirements,” 6/00, defines the role of ... Root Server Operators 22
National RFC 2916 “E.164 Number and DNS,” 9/00, ... authored by 31
.bo Bolivia
427,000 .br Brazil
Department Telecommunications and Memos of RFC 2929 “Domain Name System (DNS) IANA Considerations,” 9/00

government
.bs Bahamas
9 of Commerce Information Administration Understanding RFC 3071 “Reflections on the DNS, RFC 1591, and Categories of Domains” 2/01, ... authored by 32
.bt Bhutan
RFC 3363 “Representing IPv6 Addresses in the DNS, 8/02, see also RFC 3364 ... authored by 30
runs at the pleasure of Congress votes funds for (DoC) includes (NTIA) enters into (MoUs) establish a relationship with RFC 3467 ”Role of the Domain Name System (DNS), 2/03, ... authored by 32
.bv Bouvet Island
.bw Botswana
The US House of Representatives has a Congress has given DoC primary respons- NTIA is run by an Administrator who reports The first MoU between NTIA and ICANN RFC 3490 ”Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA),” 3/03, ... authors include 31
.by Belarus
charters
Committee on Commerce, and the US ibility for managing Internet related issues. to the Secretary of the DoC. NTIA has direct was signed on November 25, 1998. Since .bz Belize (licensed as business) 28
Senate has a Committee on Commerce, The President of the United States nomin- responsibility for working with ICANN. then, there have been 5 amendments to the 310,000 .ca Canada
Science, and Transportation, which has a ates the Secretary of the DoC who must original agreement. The latest amendment 500,000 .cc Cocos (Keeling) Islands (licensed) 28
Sub-Committee on Commerce. These then be confirmed by the Senate. DoC also includes a Technology Admini- was signed in September 30, 2002 and ex- .cd Congo, Democratic Republic
committees oversee the Department of 34 stration run by the Under-Secretary for tends the agreement for one year. .cf Central African Republic
Commerce (DoC). Technology. The Technology Administration .cg Congo
includes the National Institute of Standards 500,000 .ch Switzerland
and Technology which provides technical .ci Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
advice to NTIA. .ck Cook Islands
88,819 .cl Chile
.cm Cameroon
179,000 .cn China
.co Colombia
.cr Costa Rica
.cu Cuba
who are US citizens may elect some elements of the

.cv Cape Verde

.cx Christmas Island
.cy Cyprus
has instituted the 131,000 .cz Czech Republic
per its by-laws, enters into agreements which create 6,117,000 .de Germany
Sponsorship

ICANN through its by-laws creates a set of .dj Djibouti

3
has entered into and Registry 428,276 .dk Denmark
a board of directors governs has NO agreements covering the operation of Agreements empower Supporting Organizations 13 Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) allocate blocks of IP addresses to Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) .dm Dominica
- Address Supporting Organization (ASO) is made up of members from RIRs are non-profit organizations All registrars in the .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org .do Dominican Republic
should charter

15 Voting Directors Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a - Country-Code Supporting Organization (ccSO) will be made up of members from that manage, distribute and register TLDs, as well as some in ccTLDs, have agreed to follow .dz Algeria
Chosen by: California non-profit corporation. It resides in Marina del Rey and has a staff - Generic Names Supporting Organization (gNSO) includes members from public numeric Internet address spaces and related resources the UDRP. Under the policy, most types of trademark-based .ec Ecuador
register names in

12 8 Nominating Committee of 24 and an FY03 budget of about $7,000,000. It coordinates, at the overall within their respective regions. domain-name disputes must be resolved by agreement, .ee Estonia
13 2 Address Supporting Organization level, the Internet’s systems of unique identifiers and ensures the stable and Advisory Committees - American Registry for Internet Numbers, Ltd. (ARIN) court action, or arbitration before a registrar will cancel, .eg Egypt
should pay

13 2 Country-Code Supporting Organization secure operation of those systems. Specifically, it: - At-Large Advisory Committee 14 - Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) suspend, or transfer a domain name. .er Eritrea
13 2 Generic Names Supporting Organization 1. Coordinates the allocation and assignment of the three sets - Executive Search Committee - Latin America Caribbean IP Address Registry (LACNIC) .es Spain
1 President of ICANN (serves ex officio) of unique identifiers for the Internet, which are - Governmental Advisory Committee 15 - Réseaux Internet Protocol Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) Internet Service Providers (ISPs) resell ... IP addresses 6 .et Ethiopia
a. Domain names (forming a system referred to as DNS) 5 - Root Server System Advisory Committee 17 drawn from ... Operators 22 ICANN has begun the process of accepting other RIRs ISPs can join their RIR and participate in policy making. .fi Finland
6 Non-Voting Liaisons b. Internet protocol (IP) addresses 6 - Security and Stability Advisory Committee 18 - African IP Address Registry (AfriNIC) .fj Fiji
Chosen by: and autonomous system (AS) numbers Technical Liaison Group Organizations 19 .fk Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
14 1 At-Large Advisory Committee c. Protocol port and parameter numbers. Other Committees and Task Forces Regional TLD Organizations - ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) .fm Micronesia (licensed as FM radio) 28
15 1 Governmental Advisory Committee 2. Coordinates the operation and evolution of the DNS root name servers. - Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) Committee - AFTLD, Africa - IAB (Internet Architecture Board) 11 .fo Faroe Islands
16 1 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 3. Coordinates policy development related to these technical functions. - New TLD Evaluation Process Planning Task Force - APTLD, Asia and Pacific - ITU (International Telecommunications Union) 163,000 .fr France
17 1 Root Server System Advisory Committee - Nominating Committee 12 - CENTR, Europe - W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) .ga Gabon
18 1 Security and Stability Advisory Committee - Technical Liaison Group - LACTLD, Latin America and Caribbean .gd Grenada
19 1 Technical Liaison Group - NATLD, North America .ge Georgia
.gf French Guiana

4
may contract with third-party
registry 7
registry .gg Guernsey (Channel Island)
.gh Ghana
.gi Gibraltar
.gl Greenland

registrars pay operators run databases populate

may themselves be
.gm Gambia
2 .gn Guinea
.gp Guadeloupe
.gq Equatorial Guinea
register names with

Registrars exist primarily to lease domain names. In many ICANN has not established formal relationships with all registry operators. A registry database contains a record for
manage

.gr Greece
cases, registry operators also act as registrars. The Therefore, not all are chartered, nor do all pay. 20 each domain name registered in its TLD.

Name Registration Process

.gs S. Georgia and S. Sandwich Islands
unrestricted generic top-level domains (gTLDs) now have For each name, the database also records: .gt Guatemala
many registrars. ICANN has accredited 167 registrars A registry operator’s primary responsibility is running the registry database. - the names and IP addresses of the name .gu Guam
for the gTLDs. Registrars pay ICANN $5000 per year to Each top-level domain (TLD) must have one registry operator and one servers that are authoritative for this domain .gw Guinea-Bissau
be accredited. registry database. Registry operators may manage more than one TLD. For - registrant of the name .gy Guyana
example, VeriSign manages both the .com and .net TLDs. - registrant’s contact information 64,440 .hk Hong Kong
Registrars set rates and terms for leasing names. Rates - technical contact .hm Heard and McDonald Islands
generally vary from $10 to $35 per year for gTLDs Some Registry operators must provide public access to a database of the - technical contact’s contact information .hn Honduras
country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) are much higher, domain names and related contact information in their TLD—the Whois The name registration process .hr Croatia (Hrvatska)
e.g. Speednames is asking 375 euros for a one year lease database. They must also provide access to the zone data file—the ICANN, not the registry operator, retains .ht Haiti
of a .gl name. However, .ar offers free registration. Terms domain/name servers information for all names in their TLD. They should rights to the information in the registry is the method by which people 90,000 .hu Hungary
are generally 1 to 2 years though some registrars offer also periodically deposit registration data into escrow with an approved databases. lease a unique domain name .id Indonesia
terms up to 10 years, a limit imposed by ICANN. escrow operator. .ie Ireland
within a particular TLD. .il Israel
.in India
.io British Indian Ocean Territory

top-level domains
pay

.iq Iraq
.ir Iran
.is Iceland
767,000 .it Italy
.je Jersey (Channel Island)

1
people can also directly access (TLDs) are of two types generic (gTLDs) and country code (ccTLDs) are 568,195
.jm Jamaica
.jo Jordan
.jp Japan 27
.ke Kenya 27
(often without realizing) rely on
lease unique
remember

contain

People rely on DNS in many ways. Some of the A TLD is a unique string of letters designating a top-level branch of a Original gTLDs, most introduced in 1984 ccTLDs are two letter designators for countries, territories, and geographic By convention, www.nic.foo is the URL for the .kg Kyrgyzstan
most common are: hierarchical name space. The domain names under that branch are unique; names registered Restrictions Operator or sponsor regions. Originally Jon Postel advised that IANA should not be in the business registry for foo where foo is any TLD—though .kh Cambodia
- addressing an email that is, each can be registered to only one person or organization. Some 5 .arpa for Internet infrastructure (1982) IANA under the guidance of IAB of determining what is or is not a country and adopted the ISO 3166 standard there are exceptions. .ki Kiribati
- entering a URL into a browser TLDs have restrictions on who can register a domain name; others do not. 23,239,000 .com unrestricted VeriSign Global Registry Services as a basis for ccTLDs. Some appear to have never been sponsored and some .km Comoros
- clicking on a link in which a URL is embedded 18,224 .edu for US higher-educational institutions Educause have changed. Also, the former Soviet Union (.su) ccTLD is still active. .kn Saint Kitts and Nevis
- using FTP to transfer a file Today, there are 258 active TLDs. 15 are gTLDs; 243 are ccTLDs. ICANN unavailable .gov for US government organizations US General Services Administration (recently opened to state governments) Recently, ICANN gave IANA authority to delegated the .eu domain 507,000 .kr Korea (South)
can create new TLDs and direct VeriSign/NSI to change the root zone file, 30 .int for treaty organizations (1988) IANA .int Domain Registry (for European Union); .eu is not yet active. .kw Kuwait
One person or organization may register many but only after the approval of the US Department of Commerce. 3,990,000 .net unrestricted VeriSign Global Registry Services .ky Cayman Islands
names. Domain names, once registered, may unavailable .mil for US military organizations US DoD Network Information Center As of March 15, 2003, ICANN reports that 19,855,021 domain names have been .kz Kazakhstan
be sold to others. Registrations may also In 2003, operators of registries larger than 50,000 names will pay ICANN: 2,637,000 .org unrestricted Public Interest Registry registered in all ccTLDs. 36 ccTLDs have registered more than 50,000 names; .la Laos (licensed as Los Angeles) 27 28
be transferred from one registry to another by VeriSign .com $115,000 they account for 96.8% (19,222,804 names). See list at right for detailed figures. .lb Lebanon
their holders. VeriSign .net $115,000 New gTLDs, approved in November, 2000 .lc Saint Lucia
Afilias .info $115,000 2700 .aero for air-transport industry Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques (SITA) 20 Only 10 ccTLD registries have signed sponsorship agreements with ICANN: .li Liechtenstein
At the time of registration, people must enter PIR .org $115,000 837,000 .biz for businesses NeuLevel, Inc. .af, .au, .bi, .jp, .ke, .la, .mw, .sd, .tw, .uz 27 .lk Sri Lanka
the IP addresses of the name servers that will be NeuLevel .biz $92,000 2289 .coop for cooperative associations Dot Cooperation LLC .lr Liberia
authoritative for their domain name. (They can GNR .name $92,000 1,029,000 .info unrestricted Afilias Limited Fee apportionment and legal jurisdiction are issues creating controversy .ls Lesotho
later change those addresses.) The domain name RegistryPro .pro $92,000 530 .museum for museums Museum Domain Management Association and inhibiting adoption of sponsorship agreements. In the meantime, .lt Lithuania
must also be added to their authoritative servers. total $736,000 87,000 .name for individuals Global Name Registry the sponsors already in place continue to operate without agreements, .lu Luxembourg
- .pro for credentialed professionals RegistryPro and some make voluntary contributions in lieu of paying fees. .lv Latvia
total: 31,819,000 .ly Libya

domain names www.example.com

5 .ma Morocco
for example, .mc Monaco
can be called in .md Moldova (licensed for health care) 28
.mg Madagascar
sub-domain is part of . . . . . . domain is part of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . top-level domain
.mh Marshall Islands

resolves to
.mk FYROM (Macedonia)
.ml Mali
Domain names were historically Some ccTLDs have restrictive .mm Myanmar
restricted to a subset of ASCII: 10 policies at the second level. .mn Mongolia

DNS Look-up Process

figures, 26 letters (with no cases), In that case, registrations are at .mo Macau
and the hyphen. Only letters may
begin a name; names may not end
in a hyphen. New names must be
a client, the third level, e.g., example.co.uk.

A domain may represent a single

.mp Northern Mariana Islands
.mq Martinique
.mr Mauritania
from 3 to 63 characters long. (Many
two-letter names already exist.) e.g., a browser The OS finds a local server by:
1) reading IP addresses explicitly
entered during configuration or
computer or a network of
com-puters. Sub-domains can be
appended for each computer on a
69,351 .ms Montserrat
.mt Malta
.mu Mauritius
first checks

Typically, one domain name points Actually, clients generally 2) receiving IP addresses along with network or for each new network. .mv Maldives
to one IP address. However, one rely on an operating system its own IP address via Dynamic The DNS look-up process is a .mw Malawi 27
domain name can point to several (OS) to provide a resource Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) When a change is made in a local
IP addresses. Pointing to multiple called a stub resolver 24 method of finding the IP addresses network the local organization
75,000 .mx Mexico
1 or more For example, a query might begin The root servers are operated .my Malaysia
checks

IP addresses allows geographic which keeps a list of recently

with this local name server : voluntarily, without charge and
that correspond with domain names. responsible for the network needs .mz Mozambique
distribution improving performance visited sites and their IP ad- The OS can be configured to query to update its name server only.
and balancing load—which can be dresses (a cache) and talks to alternate local DNS servers, if it does pdevine.com 63.193.117.11 without external subsidy, and in It involves searching a hierarchical, An organization may delegate
.na Namibia
and proceed as follows the absence of any formal, .nc New Caledonia
return

important for high-traffic sites. the local DNS server. (Stub not receive an answer. Or it can be distributed database. responsibility for segments of the
resolvers are contrasted with configured to simultaneously query external monitoring. .ne Niger
(The number of IP addresses to the network (sub-domains). Thus, .nf Norfolk Island
which a single domain name points full or iterative resolvers.) multiple local DNS servers. the work of registering changes .ng Nigeria
faces a practical limit: the amount can be distributed among many
of data that fits in a single 512-octet
packet.)
a cache a local organizations. 827,000
165,000
.ni Nicaragua
.nl Netherlands
.no Norway
may contain
or may contain an error record, e.g., ”not found”
or, if no record is found,
input into

21 name server .np Nepal

.nr Nauru
the DNS reverse look-up process

A current version of this information 111,795 .nu Niue (licensed, “now” in Swedish) 28
(which is needed to initialize the cache of all Internet domain name servers) 144,251 .nz New Zealand
first checks

Local name servers provide a

resource called a full resolver 24 is available at ftp://ftp.rs.internic.net/domain/named.root .om Oman
which handles queries from from InterNIC which is operated by ICANN under a trademark license from US DoC. .pa Panama
stub resolvers, manages its 26 .pe Peru
1 of 13 worldwide Root name servers: IP address: 22 Root Server Operators: Located in:
checks

own cache, and itself queries .pf French Polynesia

may also functions as
may also functions as
Often a user’s local name server
a series of other name servers The local name server should A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 198.41.0.4 VeriSign/Network Solutions, Inc (NSI) Herndon, VA USA Authoritative .pg Papua New Guinea
performs two functions:
until it resolves a name (finds randomly select root servers and track B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 128.9.0.107 Information Sciences Institute, USC Marina Del Rey, CA USA Mirrored .ph Philippines
1) it provides a full resolver for
its associated IP address or response times. Then it should choose C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 192.33.4.12 PSINet Herndon, VA USA .pk Pakistan
local clients trying to find Internet
finds none exists) and reports the one responding most quickly and D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 128.8.10.90 University of Maryland College Park, MD USA 175,000 .pl Poland
hosts outside its local network, and
the results to the stub resolver. ask for an NS record. 25 E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 192.203.230.10 NASA Mountain View, CA USA .pm St. Pierre and Miquelon
the DNS look-up process

The DNS look-up process is 2) it acts as an authoritative name

F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 192.5.5.241 23 Internet Software Consortium (ISC) Palo Alto and SF, CA USA .pn Pitcairn
detail-ed in the blue box to the server to the outside world for
right. Caching records minimizes
look-up time and reduces load
its cache a root G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
192.112.36.4
128.63.2.53
192.36.148.17
Defense Information Systems Agency
Army Research Laboratory
NORDUNet
Vienna, VA
Aberdeen, MD
Stockholm
USA
USA
Sweden
queries about the local network.
You can think of the server as
.pr Puerto Rico
.ps Palestine
.pt Portugal
having two components: one for
may contain
or may contain an error record
or may contain a record that
or may contain a record that
or may contain a record that
or, if no record is found,

The DNS was designed to return

unique IP addresses in response to
domain name queries from
on the DNS servers. Records
do not remain indefinitely in a
cache. Each record comes with
21 name server J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
192.58.128.30
193.0.14.129
198.32.64.12
VeriSign/Network Solutions, Inc (TBD)
RIPE-NCC
ICANN (TBD)
Herndon, VA
London
Marina Del Rey, CA
USA
UK
USA
inbound queries about local hosts
and one for outbound queries
.pw Palau
.py Paraguay
.qa Qatar
com-puter applications. a time-to-live value (TTL) about remote hosts. Depending on
checks

M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 202.12.27.33 WIDE Tokyo Japan .re Reunion

Uniqueness was one of the its specified by the originating the implementation, these
functions may be performed by the 64,485 .ro Romania
design objec-tives, and server. The TTL defines how long
same program, BIND being the 156,000 .ru Russian Federation
1 of 719 worldwide
points to

preservation of unique-ness has the record is valid and may be gTLD name servers for .com:
A.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.5.6.30 Authoritative most common, or they could be .rw Rwanda
been a criterion used to assess set to anything from 0 seconds The root name server returns a list of
B.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.33.14.30 Mirrored performed by separate programs .sa Saudi Arabia
proposals for change. to several days. Typically, it’s up to 13 TLD name servers—today, the
C.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.26.92.30 on one machine or by separate .sb Solomon Islands
set for 24 hours. number returned is between 2 to 10 .sc Seychelles
depending on the TLD. The local name D.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.31.80.30 machines altogether.
E was not returned .sd Sudan 27

DNS
server picks one to query and asks 148,436 .se Sweden
24 A resolver is an agent that runs for an NS record. 25 F.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.35.51.30

0 relies on locally to a machine needing to

access a TCP/IP network.
its records a TLD
G.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.42.93.30
H.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.54.112.30
I.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.43.172.30
.sg Singapore
.sh St. Helena
.si Slovenia

links The resolver’s role is to look-up J.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.48.79.30 .sj Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
.sk Slovak Republic
if no record is found, returns an error
or, if a record is found, it

DNS information for applications

running on the machine. It takes a
domain name and a DNS resource
21 name server K was not returned
L.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. 192.41.162.30
M was not returned
.sl Sierra Leone
.sm San Marino
to find

By separating the name of a domain .sn Senegal

checks

record type 25 as parameters. .so Somalia

from the IP address to which it cor- The query type identifies what .sr Suriname
information about the domain is .st Sao Tome and Principe (licensed) 28
1 of 10,000s worldwide
points to

responds, the Domain Name System being requested. the 2 domain name servers
.su USSR (former)
The TLD name server returns a list of for example.com:
(DNS) enables people to easily move (at least 2) domain name servers with a.iana-servers.net 192.0.34.43 .sv El Salvador
.sy Syria
the contents of a domain from one DNS Resource Record Types
25 authoritative information on the b.iana-servers.net 193.0.0.236
.sz Swaziland
A Address. See RFC 1035 requested domain. The local name
machine to another—without chang- Maps a name to an IP address. server picks one to query and asks .tc Turks and Caicos Islands
.td Chad (licensed for trade domains) 28
ing the configuration of the network. The DNS reverse look-up process AAAA IPv6 address. See RFC 1886. for an A record. 25
.tf French Southern Territories
links IP addresses to their primary AFSDB AFS Data Base location.
Likewise an IP address may be trans-
ferred from one machine to another,
domain names. It’s useful for
individuals and required by some
See RFC 1183.
CNAME Canonical Name. See RFC 1035.
its records a domain .tg Togo
.th Thailand
.tj Tajikistan
software applications such as HINFO Host Information. See RFC 1035.
if no record is found, returns an error
or, if a record is found, it

allowing devices to be serviced or

upgraded.
some email servers. However,
some machines with a single IP
ISDN ISDN. See RFC 1183.
KEY Public key. See RFC 2065.
21 name server .tk Tokelau
.tm Turkmenistan
.tn Tunisia
address can host multiple domains; KX Key Exchanger. See RFC 2230. 97,335 .to Tonga (licensed) 28
checks

a reverse look-up will return only LOC Location. See RFC 1876. .tp East Timor
return

A name system is a combination of: the primary domain name. MB Mailbox. See RFC 1035. .tr Turkey
MG See RFC 1035.
points to

or returns

The domain name servers for .tt Trinidad and Tobago

a) an object space (things named) MINFO See RFC 1035.
example.com contain a record 261,589 .tv Tuvalu (licensed for television) 28
input into

MR See RFC 1035.

b) the name space applied to it MX Mail Exchanger. See RFC 1035.
for the www sub-domain and 123,000 .tw Taiwan 27
return the name and IP address .tz Tanzania
c) the rules governing assignment Identifies which hosts will accept
to the local name server which .ua Ukraine
mail for a given domain.
of names to objects NAPTR See RFC 3403.
returns the record to the stub .ug Uganda
resolver that originated the query. 4,168,000 .uk United Kingdom
d) files recording the assignments NULL See RFC 1035. .um US Minor Outlying Islands
e) administrative processes applying
the rules and maintaining the files
NS Name Server. See RFC 1035.
Points to the authoritative name
server for a sub-domain.
its records a sub-domain 529,000 .us United States
.uy Uruguay
.uz Uzbekistan 27
if no record is found, returns an error
or may contain
or may contain a record that

In the DNS, those are:

NSAP Network service access point.

NXT
See RFC 1348, 1637, 1706.
Next. See RFC 2065.
21 name server .va Vatican City State (Holy See)
.vc Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
.ve Venezuela
PTR Pointer. See RFC 1035.
checks

The domain name servers may .vg Virgin Islands (British)

a) IP addresses (representing com- Used during reverse lookup. point to sub-domain name servers .vi Virgin Islands (U.S.)
PX Pointer to X.400/RFC822 information.
puting devices) 6 See RFC 1664.
which may point to still lower- .vn Viet Nam
level name servers until the full .vu Vanuatu
b) domain names 5 RP Responsible Person. See RFC 1183. 26 The current number of root servers name is resolved. This ability to .wf Wallis and Futuna Islands
RT Route Through. See RFC 1183. is limited to 13 as that is the point lower allows the delegation
c) rules defined in the RFCs 10 SIG Cryptographic signature. maximum number of name servers
182,504 .ws Western Samoa (licensed) 28
and distribution of responsibility .ye Yemen
d) registry databases 7 See RFC 2065. and their address records that fit in for sub-domain names within .yt Mayotte
SOA Start Of Authority. See RFC 1035. one 512-octet answer for a SOA large organizations.
e) processes defined by DoC, 9 SRV Server. See RFC 2052. record. The original 512 restriction
.yu Yugoslavia
133,836 .za South Africa
ICANN, 3 registry operators, 4 TXT Text. See RFC 1035. was put in place to reduce the prob- .zm Zambia
registrars, 2 and the
WKS Well-Known Service. See RFC 1035.
X25 X25. See RFC 1183
ability of fragmentation of DNS
responses. its records, etc. .zw Zimbabwe

standards organizations. 8 No longer used

.cs Czechoslovakia (retired in 1995)

IP addresses 192.0.34.166
.gb Great Britain
.zr Zaire (retired in 1997)
6 for example,
Not assigned to a sponsor
IP addresses are typically written as 4 numbers separated
IP addresses are also called IP numbers. .eh Western Sahara
identify

by dots. Each number is in a range from 0 to 255. Thus a full

.kp North Korea
address is 32 bits. These are IPv4 addresses. In some places,
Each device on a network must have IPv6 has been deployed. IPv6 addresses are 128 bits written
an IP address in order to communicate 27 Countries indicated in bold have signed
using hexadecimal strings, e.g., 1080:0:0:0:8:800:200C:417A.
with the network, but the IP address a ccTLD sponsorship agreement.
need not be associated with a domain.
Conversely, one IP address can be 28 Some ccTLDs function much as gTLDs
associated with several domain names. registering without restrictions; many of
In this way, a single server can host these are noted above as “licensed.”
many domains, as is often the case
with ISPs.

Internet
29 Committee Members
Roger Levien, Chair
30 S. Robert Austein
Stanley Besen
Christine L. Borgman

resources such as National Science Foundation (NSF) creates InterNIC

31
Timothy Casey
Hugh Dubberly
Patrik Fältström
Per-Kristian Halvorsen
that enable

DNS invented by Paul Mockapetris in collaboration with Jon Postel. and grants Network Solutions, Inc., (NSI) right to manage DNS registration. Marylee Jenkins
ICCB formed. IAB established; replaced ICCB (Internet Configuration Control Board). Mosaic, first freely-available graphical web browser, invented by a team at University of Illinois. 32 John C. Klensin
Milton L. Mueller
Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at USC given responsibility for DNS root management. Sharon Nelson
SRI runs DNS NIC registrations. Netscape IPO heralded Internet boom. 33 Craig Partridge
BIND released by UC Berkeley. NSI begins fee-based registration. William Raduchel
Hal R. Varian
IETF forms under IAB. Root server created in Stockholm; now “I.” K root server created in London.
M root server created in Tokyo. This diagram was created in conjunction NAS Staff Members:
Mail Exchanger (MX) records developed by Craig Partridge. 33 with a study: ”Internet Navigation and Alan S. Inouye
RFC 1035: Domain Names Implementation and Specification published. ICANN incorporated; enters agreement with US DoC. Domain Name System.” Cynthia A. Patterson
Multiple registrars appear. Margaret Marsh Huynh
Steve Crocker wrote RFC1; Jon Postel began as RFC editor. IANA established (Jon Postel is Director). Jon Postel dies. The study was run by The National Marjory Blumenthal

email computers FTP invented.

Deployment of IPv4 began.
Web invented by a team at CERN led by Tim Berners-Lee.
First private email carriers connected to Internet.
Deployment of IPv6 began. 34
Academies’ Computer Science and
Telecommunications Board which
convened a study committee. 29
The study was sponsored by the US
Kristen Batch

draft version 16
Email invented at BBN. Department of Commerce and the August 2, 2003

web browsing handheld devices First precursor to DNS established (HOSTS.TXT file)
First ccTLD (.uk) established.
First gTLDs established. .int TLD created.
ISOC formed; IAB becomes part of ISOC.

HOSTS.TXT conversion to DNS complete.

VeriSign buys NSI.
ICANN established 7 new gTLDs.
National Science Foundation and
mandated by the US Congress.

Hugh Dubberly and Paul Devine drafted

produced by
Dubberly Design Office
2501 Harrison Street, #7

file transfer routers ARPANET begins. ARPANET switches to IP. ARPANET ceases to exist. the diagram, and the committee review- San Francisco, CA 94110
ed it. Special thanks to Juan Quiles for
1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 finding and checking facts. 415 648 9799

Selected events related to the history of DNS