Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix C, Section C(.info)

(26 April 2001)

Functional Specifications

Section C—Domain Name Services

Overview

The Registry will operate Domain Name Service (DNS) facilities to resolve names entered in the registry. DNS facilities will be operated in diverse geographic locations. This will provide improved local response time to users on a global basis as well as network redundancy.

Server Software and Platform

Server Software. The nameservers run proprietary DNS server software. Nameservers are in full conformance with [RFC1035], [RFC2181], and [RFC2182], and are fully capable of supporting dynamic updates to primaries as defined in [RFC2136] and Transaction Signatures as defined in [RFC2845].

Network. Each backbone site within DNS infrastructure is connected to two different Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Domain Names Services provided by the Registry consists of substantially three portions.

• Zone generation
• Zone publication
• Zone distribution

These are described in more detail below.

Zone Generation

Zone generation involves the creation of DNS zone information using the registry database as the authoritative source of domain names and their associated hosts (nameservers).

Updates to the zone information will be generated automatically every five minutes. These updates will reflect any modifications, additions or deletions to the registry, that have been made by the registrars during that time period. Only changes that have been committed to the database will be reflected in the zone information update. Incomplete units of work will be ignored.

The master zone file will include the following resource records:

• A single SOA record.
• A number of NS and A records, up to a maximum of 13 of each, for the TLD DNS servers for .info.
• One NS record for each unique domain/nameserver combination. Only domain objects with status values of ACTIVE, LOCK, CLIENT-LOCK and PENDING-TRANSFER will be included in the zone file.
• One A record for each required glue record. (Afilias will implement, on a reasonable schedule, glue-generation and pruning criteria specified by ICANN from time to time.)

Zone Publication

The publication of zone information involves the installation of zone information updates in the master nameserver. Zone publication occurs immediately following zone generation.

Zone Distribution

The distribution of zone information involves the installation of zone updates on the DNS nameservers around the world. Zone distribution occurs immediately following zone publication. Zone information updates will be distributed to DNS nameservers using industry-accepted methods, and will be done in a secure manner, using data encryption and secure channels.

Transfers of zone data is accomplished via a full zone transfer (AXFR) or incremental zone transfers (IXFR). Additionally, transaction signatures (TSIG) are supported, as defined in [RFC2845] for the transfer of zone data for its secondary service. Internally, zone data is propagated between nameservers within through an optimized, secure transfer.

TLD Zone File Access

Afilias will provide bulk access to the TLD zone file for qualified third parties. The service will operate by generating a file, once a day, that contains the entire list of registered domain names. The file will be delimited to allow for easy extraction and manipulation of the data contained within. Subscribers will be able to download this file via an FTP interface.

Every subscriber will be given its own unique access account and password. Subscribers will only be able to access the system from a single known IP address. Access to the TLD zone file will only be granted if the account name, password and IP address are authenticated and valid. Subscribers will be urged to maintain the confidentiality of their passwords. When a party's subscription expires, access to FTP server will not be allowed until the subscription is renewed.

Page Updated 24-Dec-2002
©2001  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. All rights reserved.