[Collisions] Weird dest IP addr

[Jim Reid]

On 7 Oct 2013, at 16:39, Warren Kumari <warren at kumari.net> wrote:

>> 198.41.0.10
>> 
>> Which isn’t the official root server address of anything.

That is the case today.

> But it *was* -- AFAIR at the beginning of 1997.

Yup. 5 seconds with google found this old hints file:

;       This file holds the information on root name servers needed to
;       initialize cache of Internet domain name servers
	...
;       last update:    Aug 22, 1997
;       related version of root zone:   1997082200
	...

; temporarily housed at NSI (InterNIC)
;
.                        3600000      NS    J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000      A     198.41.0.10

The IP addresses of the root servers have changed from time to time and as Warren says, the old addresses continue to get traffic because heaps of deployed stuff never gets updated or knows any better.

Someone from IANA should be able to provide a list of when these addresses changed.

My guess is Verisign still has/had its current root server answering queries on the legacy addresses so things would still work for those who expected the old address to remain active long after it had been retired.