ICANN doesn’t get much love these days; that’s hardly a secret. We’d be much better off without such a greedy organization milking the domain industry at every turn. But how do you change something that is such an integral part of the Internet?
The entire problem isn’t immediately apparent. Before we can begin to fix the problem, we have to understand how ICANN obtains such immense and exclusive power.
Hostnames--including domain names--existed long before DNS. Originally, each computer had to have its own complete database of every hostname and its associated IP address. Naturally, as the Internet grew, maintaining this database on every computer became problematic; hence, DNS was born.
A fully-qualified domain name looks like your typical domain name, but it ends with a dot. The FQDN for NamePros is
Technically, DNS doesn’t have to work this way. There could be multiple organizations in charge of the root zone. It just so happens that ICANN has established itself as the only authoritative entity, and their method of doing this makes change difficult at best. Even though individual computers don’t keep track of all hostnames anymore, they still maintain a list of root nameservers. The root nameservers have ultimate authority--and they’re all run by ICANN. The list can change, but there’s no easy way to update every computer on the Internet. A root nameserver overhaul is somewhere between impractical and impossible.
So that’s where ICANN derives its power from: you. Every Internet-enabled electronic you own is programmed to listen to ICANN. But, unfortunately for ICANN, there’s a weak point.
Next: Part 2
The entire problem isn’t immediately apparent. Before we can begin to fix the problem, we have to understand how ICANN obtains such immense and exclusive power.
Hostnames--including domain names--existed long before DNS. Originally, each computer had to have its own complete database of every hostname and its associated IP address. Naturally, as the Internet grew, maintaining this database on every computer became problematic; hence, DNS was born.
A fully-qualified domain name looks like your typical domain name, but it ends with a dot. The FQDN for NamePros is
www.namepros.com., with a rather significant period at the end. Each dot marks a point at which authority can be delegated. The root zone is simply .. ICANN’s job is to be the authority for the root zone. They can then delegate authority of sub-zones, like com., to other organizations, who in turn can perform further delegation.Technically, DNS doesn’t have to work this way. There could be multiple organizations in charge of the root zone. It just so happens that ICANN has established itself as the only authoritative entity, and their method of doing this makes change difficult at best. Even though individual computers don’t keep track of all hostnames anymore, they still maintain a list of root nameservers. The root nameservers have ultimate authority--and they’re all run by ICANN. The list can change, but there’s no easy way to update every computer on the Internet. A root nameserver overhaul is somewhere between impractical and impossible.
So that’s where ICANN derives its power from: you. Every Internet-enabled electronic you own is programmed to listen to ICANN. But, unfortunately for ICANN, there’s a weak point.
Next: Part 2
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