[dns-operations] Open Root Server Network project shutdown by 31.12.2008 00:00 UTC.

[Paul Vixie]

Dear operators, users, other stakeholders,

the team of the Open Root Server Network (ORSN) decided to shutdown the
project by 31.12.2008 00:00 UTC.

Since the start of operation in 2002 ORSN was a political alternative to
the ICANN/IANA operated root server network.  It was also well known for
technical innovation by providing IPv6 support before it was introduced in
the ICANN/IANA operated root servers.

However during the last months/years the interest of our team shifted and
so we could no longer fulfill our original goal of providing innovation.

Although we realized that at this point in time the discussion about the
DNSSEC key possesion should increase the importance of a political
alternative we still couldn't find enough supporters that were willing to
help with technical expertise and work to implement this for ORSN.

Our decision was to enable the community to switch to the original root
servers and initiate a graceful shutdown period.

To do so, please replace the 'orsn.hint' (or 'root.hint') file on your
systems with the original one
(ftp://ftp.internic.net/domain/named.root). After you've done so, please
restart your nameserver. To verify that you're querying the correct servers
you can invoke 'dig @[your nameserver ip goes here] . ns'. If you receive
the following output your configuration change was correct:

---cut---
;; ANSWER SECTION:
.                       518376  IN      NS      E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.                       518376  IN      NS      D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
---cut---

Before the change you'd have received this:
---cut---
;; ANSWER SECTION:
.                       173556  IN      NS      G.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      H.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      I.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      J.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      K.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      L.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      M.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      A.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      B.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      C.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      D.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      E.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
.                       173556  IN      NS      F.ORSN-SERVERS.NET.
---cut---

We want to thank all of our operators and users for their continuous
support. R-I-P.

The ORSN operators
16th October 2008