The DNS root servers are thirteen DNS server clusters which are responsible for delegating DNS requests to the top level domain (TLD) nameservers.
The DNS Root Servers
A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: VeriSign Naming and Directory Services
IP Address: 198.41.0.4
B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: Information Sciences Institute
IP Address: 192.228.79.201
C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: Cogent Communications
IP Address: 192.33.4.12
D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: University of Maryland
IP Address: 128.8.10.90
E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: NASA Ames Research Center
IP Address: 192.203.230.10
F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.
IP Address: 192.5.5.241
G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: U.S. DOD Network Information Center
IP Address: 192.112.36.4
H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: Autonomica/NORDUnet
IP Address: 128.63.2.53
I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: Autonomica/NORDUnet
IP Address: 192.36.148.17
J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: VeriSign Naming and Directory Services
IP Address: 192.58.128.30
K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: Reseaux IP Europeens – Network Coordination Centre
IP Address: 193.0.14.129
L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
IP Address: 198.32.64.12
M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
Operator: WIDE Project
IP Address: 202.12.27.33
The DNS root servers have not been changed between 29 January, 2004 and today — 22 November, 2006.
To view the canonical list of current DNS root servers, view the named.root file at Internic.
Greetings:
I am attempting to find an Internet source which would allow me to download a list of all the current root dns.
I know that “.ca”, “.net”,”.com” are on the list.
I do not need the I.P.s, only the string, human readable list.
Thank you for taking your valuable time to assist me.
Ian Mason
abc258Mason@netscape.net
Hi Ian,
Internic.net publishes the contents of their root DNS zone file here: ftp://ftp.internic.net/domain/root.zone.gz
You will need to properly interpret the file. Essentially, every line is a DNS record. The lines containing NS records indicate intended name servers. Those name servers will typically have A records to indicate their IP addresses. Here is an example:
za. 172800 IN NS disa.tenet.ac.za.
disa.tenet.ac.za. 172800 IN A 196.21.79.50
. 518400 IN NS a.root-servers.net.
a.root-servers.net. 518400 IN A 198.41.0.4
This shows that one name server of the za domain (South Africa) is disa.tenet.ac.za. The actual IP of disa.tenet.ac.za is given as 196.21.79.50.
The root servers are those that can resolve the root name, which is just a period. An example for Internic servers is a.root-servers.net with the IP 198.41.0.4 but any number of servers could be specified to resolve the root name. Much of our internet security relies upon the fact that only trusted servers are listed to resolve the root name.
Hope that helps.
Kevin A. Naudé