Computer Software and Hardware Application Network Server Dictionary: What is the root server?

At about 7:00 on January 12, 2010, Baidu's homepage had a large-scale access failure. At the same time, Baidu's postal domain name (tieba.com) could not be accessed normally. Except for its normal access through its IP address (http://202.108.22.5) and Chinese domain name (baidu.com.cn; baidu.cn), Baidu website cannot be accessed normally in most areas of the country. Until 12 noon, Baidu announced that Beijing will return to normal and the country will resume.

The long-term disconnection of Baidu’s large-scale network has attracted a large discussion of Internet security among netizens, and the interest in root server exploration has also become strong. When we visit the URL, we go through a URL-to-IP conversion process, which is done by accessing the DNS, which is the domain name server. Since the development of the Internet began in the United States, the United States has maintained control over Internet domain names and root servers. Among the multi-level servers that provide domain name resolution, at the top are 13 domain name root servers, all managed by ICANN. One of them is the main root server, placed in Dulles, Virginia, USA, the remaining 12 are secondary root servers, 9 are placed in the United States, 2 are in Europe, 1 in the United Kingdom and Sweden, and 1 in Asia. .

These 13 root servers can direct Web browsers such as Firefox or Internet Explorer and email programs to control Internet communications. Because the root server has 260 or so Internet suffixes (such as .com, .net, etc.) approved by the US government and some countries' designators (such as French.fr, Norwegian.no, etc.), the US government manages them. Have a big say. Moreover, the US government announced on July 1, 2005 that the US Department of Commerce will retain control of 13 domain name root servers indefinitely.

The US controls the root server for domain name resolution, and controls all the domain names. If the United States does not want people to access certain domain names, they can block these domain names and make their IP addresses unresolvable. Then the websites pointed to by these domain names are equivalent to disappearing from the world of the Internet. For example, in April 2004, due to the “.ly” domain name, Libya disappeared from the Internet for three days. In addition, with the privilege of domain name management, the United States can also monitor the network usage of other countries. For example, the United States can conduct traffic access statistics on certain types of websites in a certain country, and roughly analyze the distribution of popular websites in the country. Internet users' preferences and so on.