Re: FW: First? TRUE Root Name Server On Line

[Alan Barrett <apb () iafrica com>]

On Sat, 23 Nov 1996, Jim Fleming wrote:
> When history is made on the Internet, it is important to briefly pause
> to recognize the event, and then move forward. Recently, one of the
> first TRUE Root Name Servers was put into service by John Palmer
> of The American Global Network, Inc. (AGN.NET)

Yeah, right.

When I asked 199.5.157.5 about records for ".", it returned an
"authoritative" answer containing the following bogus information:

    ;; ANSWERS:
    .       86400   SOA     MX.ALTERNIC.NET. ROOT.ARAGORN.ALTERNIC.NET. (
                            1996110715      ; serial
                            10800   ; refresh (3 hours)
                            900     ; retry (15 mins)
                            604800  ; expire (7 days)
                            86400 ) ; minimum (1 day)
    .       518400  NS      ALTER.NIC.
    .       518400  NS      MX.ALTERNIC.NET.
    .       518400  NS      ROOT-NS.MCS.NET.
    .       518400  NS      TORONTO.ALTERNIC.NET.
    .       518400  NS      ARAGORN.ALTERNIC.NET.

    ;; AUTHORITY RECORDS:
    .       518400  NS      ALTER.NIC.
    .       518400  NS      MX.ALTERNIC.NET.
    .       518400  NS      ROOT-NS.MCS.NET.
    .       518400  NS      TORONTO.ALTERNIC.NET.
    .       518400  NS      ARAGORN.ALTERNIC.NET.

    ;; ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
    ALTER.NIC.      86400   A       204.94.42.5
    MX.ALTERNIC.NET.        86400   A       204.94.42.1
    ROOT-NS.MCS.NET.        518400  A       192.160.127.86
    TORONTO.ALTERNIC.NET.   86400   A       207.107.232.106
    ARAGORN.ALTERNIC.NET.   86400   A       204.94.42.2

Astute readers will notice that the list of alleged root servers in the
answer from 199.5.157.5 does not include 199.5.157.5 itself.  Astute
readers will further notice that the Internet's real root servers
a.root-servers.net, b.root-servers.net, etc., are not mentioned in the
answer from the bogus "root server" 199.5.157.5. 

--apb (Alan Barrett)

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