Donelan.COM
Timeline of events in the Domain Name System
This list includes significant events affecting the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) history.
- Aug 1982
- RFC 819 defines initial top level domain ARPA and initial schedule
- Nov 1983
- RFC 881 revised domain implementation schedule
- Feb 1984
- RFC 897 revised domain implementation schedule
- 30 May 1984
- Test server running on USC-ISIF
- 21 Jun 1984
- Druid server from SUMEX-AIM announced
- 28 Jul 1984
- Test servers running on TOPS-20 (SRI-NIC, ISIB, ISIF)
SRI-NIC 10.0.0.51 26.0.0.73 ; JEEVES
ISIB 10.3.0.52 ; JEEVES
ISIF 10.2.0.52 ; JEEVES - Oct 1984
- RFC 920 Domain Requirements published. Adds GOV, EDU, COM, MIL and ORG
- Oct 1984
- RFC 921 reviced domain implementation schedule
- 1985
- DARPA/DCA implements RFC 920, 921 (USC-ISI/SRI-NIC)
- 15 Mar 1985
- Symbolics.COM registered
- 1 Apr 1985
- Berkeley releases BIND
- 13 May 1985
- One of two COM zones working, three of eight EDU zones working
- 28 May 1985
- 4.2bsd UDP checksum problems with BIND servers/resolvers
- 12 Jun 1985
- ISIF no longer a root server. Now a test server for new code
SRI-NIC 10.0.0.51 26.0.0.73 ; JEEVES
ISIB 10.3.0.52 ; JEEVES - 28 Jun 1985
- SRI-NIC and ISIB unreachable (no root servers reachable)
- 29 Jun 1985
- Debug root-server down code
- 5 Jul 1985
- Disk quota problem with NIC databases truncates files
- 14 Oct 1985
- Database error making ARPA a separate zone in the root and ARPA domains
- 29 Oct 1985
- Mockapetris publishes Top 10 list of things wrong with name servers
- 31 Oct 1985
- Who's the root? Answer: Ask a nameserver
SRI-NIC 10.0.0.51 26.0.0.73 ; JEEVES
ISIB 10.3.0.52 ; JEEVES
ISIC 10.0.0.52 ; JEEVES
BRL-AOS 192.5.25.82 128.20.1.2 ; BIND - 10 Dec 1985
- Authority loophole in name servers (servers may be befuddled but don't lie)
- 26 Feb 1986
- NIC zone serial numbers begin to increment (previously always 1)
- 10 Oct 1986
- BIND 4.4 updated to store backup file on disk on secondary servers. Previously it was downloaded from primary every time named started, if primary didn't answer, secondaries denied the domain existed
- 21 Oct 1986
- More root name servers requested (TOPS-20 machines preferred)
- 10 Nov 1986
- ISIB retired from service, ISIA added as new root server
SRI-NIC.ARPA 10.0.0.51 26.0.0.73 ; JEEVES
USC-ISIC.ARPA 10.0.0.52 ; JEEVES
BRL-AOS.ARPA 192.5.22.82 128.20.1.2 ; BIND
USC-ISIA.ARPA 26.3.0.103 ; JEEVES - 1987
- ARPANET congestion affecting traffic to root servers (all root NS on Arpanet)
- Mar 1987
- cs.ucl.ac.uk BIND, SATNET, EGP problems cause brl-aos to authortatively deny its existance
- 31 Mar 1987
- Removal of all nondomain-style host names in NETINFO:HOSTS.TXT
- 19 Oct 1987
- Where is France? Root zone contains wrong delegation for .FR
- Oct 1987
- Arpanet congestion now so bad sometimes no root servers are reachable
- 12 Nov 1987
- Root servers now include SOA RRs to allow negative caching due to bogon load
- 18 Nov 1987
- Retire C.ISI.EDU from root server duty. Add GUNTER-ADAM.ARPA, C.NYSER.NET TERP.UMD.EDU and NS.NASA.GOV. GUNTER-ADAM is JEEVES, the rest are BIND. "The changes should be invisible if you have set up your servers and resolvers properly." What happened: Almost all versions of BIND get a BUS ERROR or SEGV when it boots using a named.ca file listing C.ISI.EDU. Non-BIND nameservers continue working.
- 22 Nov 1987
- C.ISI.EDU disconnected, doesn't stop clients from trying to use it
- 25 Dec 1987 through 4 Jan 1988
- SRI NIC closed for Christmas holidays, including HOSTMASTER mail
- 7 Apr 1988
- C.NYSER.NET moved to new network and location
- 20 Aug 1988
- Where is Norway? Long TTL values for .NO hide new MX record through UUNET after Norway loses its satellite link for a couple of months
- 14 Sep 1988
- Root name server bugs (TERP.UMD.EDU and NS.NASA.GOV)
- 26 Dec 1988 through 2 Jan 1989
- SRI NIC closed for Christmas holidays, including HOSTMASTER mail
- 4 Feb 1989
- BRL-AOS.ARPA over 1 week old data, C.NYSER.NET over 2 weeks old data
- 2 Jun 1989
- TERP.UMD.EDU and C.NYSER.NET old data. SRI-NIC.ARPA only on ARPANET and MILNET, not available via NSFNET and is very congested
- 6 Apr 1990
- NIC address 10.0.0.51 retired, NS.NIC.DDN.MIL 192.67.67.53 added as root
- 1 Jun 1990
- NIC.DDN.MIL 26.0.0.73 root service ends (last "original" root server)
- 26 Oct 1990
- SRI-NIC.ARPA is back, bogus root cache corruption in BIND
- 26 Oct 1990
- GUNTER-ADAM.AF.MIL removed for 1 month for maintenance and upgrading
- 1 May 1991
- DDN NIC contract transfered from SRI International to GSI
- 28 Jul 1991
- NIC.NORDU.NET appears as a root server in root-servers.txt (first non-US root server)
- 26 Mar 1992
- Bogus "." contamination moevax.edu.tw (and many more for several years)
- 1 Jun 1992
- Caching-only name server (BIND) hangs when forwarders unreachable
- 1993
- Slow connections/packet loss to NIC.DDN.MIL result in many different distribution problems. People report consistent 50%+ packet loss to NIC.DDN.MIL root name server.
- 15 Apr 1993
- NS.INTERNIC.NET added to hints file NSI/GSI Internet connection upgraded from 56K to T1
- 21 Apr 1993
- Root server list UDP packet size limit exceeded
- 31 Aug 1993
- Bellovin suggests using pseudo-host root.net to pack server list
- 3 Apr 1994
- AOS.BRL.MIL renamed AOS.ARL.ARMY.MIL (server name mismatch)
- 19 Apr 1994
- Sprint employee registers the domain name MCI.NET (first namejacking?)
- 9 May 1994
- KAVA.NISC.SRI.COM removed as a root name server
- 16 May 1994
- NS1.ISI.EDU added as a root name server
- 18 Jul 1994
- Bogus in-addr.arpa SOA/NS disrupts networks
- 28 Aug 1994
- Malformed PTR entry in in-addr.arpa zone disrupts most (almost all) root name servers, many using old software
- 2 Sep 1994
- NS.ISC.ORG added as a root name server
- 7 Oct 1994
- C.NYSER.NET changed to C.PSI.NET
- 17 Oct 1994
- Bogus NS records for COM zone polluting servers
- 15 Feb 1995
- Recursion turned off on the last root name server with it enabled
- 4 Aug 1995
- root-servers.net introduced into root zone ns.nasa.gov changed ip addresses ns.isc.org uses net 39 experiment address
- 1 Sep 1995
- ns.internic.net changed to a.root-servers.net (last root-servers.net change)
- 13 Sep 1995
- Leaked: NSI begins fee-based DNS registration Sep 18 1995
- 16 Nov 1995
- f.root-servers.net address change at the end of net 39 experiment
- May 1996
- Guardian announced to protect names and server information
- 23 Jul 1996
- g.root-servers.net root zone expired, bogus responses
- 22 Aug 1996
- Bind/malformed record problems ".com<tab>com" (believed to be malicious)
- 8 Nov 1996
- Bogus address for ns.uu.net (secondary name server for many other domains)
- 22 Jan 1997
- root only root name servers J and K added
- 14 Feb 1997
- h.root-servers.net loses COM zone and authoritatively denies it exists
- 28 Feb 1997
- root only root name servers L and M added
- 12 Apr 1997
- h.root-servers.net loses COM zone (again)
- 19 May 1997
- k.root-servers.net moved to London LINX managed by RIPE/NCC
- 26 Jun 1997
- i.root-servers.net loses COM zone
- 13 Jul 1997
- Kashpureff corrupts DNS caches redirecting www.internic.net traffic
- 17 Jul 1997
- Error during the generation of COM and NET zones at NSI truncates zone information
- 22 Aug 1997
- m.root-servers.net moved to Japan managed by WIDE Project
- 11 Nov 1998
- [fjk].gtld-servers.net giving NXDOMAIN response to queries for COM zone f.root-servers.net lame due to ISP problems at NSI
- 2 Jul 1999
- NSI web site redirected to CORE with ICANN glue record
- 23 Aug 2000
- Timing bug causes missing NS records for COM zone on a.root-servers.net
- 5 Nov 2002
- J.root-servers.net address changed to a different network from A.root-servers.net (first change to root server list after Dr. Postel's death)