The 13 Internet Root Servers
The root servers that sustain the global DNS infrastructure
What are Root Servers?
Root Servers are the fundamental backbone of the Domain Name System (DNS). They are the first servers queried in the DNS resolution process: when a recursive DNS server cannot resolve a domain name, it queries one of these 13 root server clusters to obtain the address of the corresponding TLD (Top-Level Domain) server.
Although they are called "the 13 Root Servers", each letter actually represents a cluster with hundreds of globally distributed servers using anycast. In total, there are over 1,700 root server instances spread around the world, ensuring the resilience and speed of the DNS system.
The Root Servers are managed by 12 different organizations, including universities, companies and government agencies, under the coordination of ICANN and IANA.
| Letter | IPv4 | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| A | 198.41.0.4 | Verisign |
| B | 170.247.170.2 | USC-ISI |
| C | 192.33.4.12 | Cogent Communications |
| D | 199.7.91.13 | University of Maryland |
| E | 192.203.230.10 | NASA Ames Research Center |
| F | 192.5.5.241 | Internet Systems Consortium |
| G | 192.112.36.4 | US DoD (NIC) |
| H | 198.97.190.53 | US Army Research Lab |
| I | 192.36.148.17 | Netnod |
| J | 192.58.128.30 | Verisign |
| K | 193.0.14.129 | RIPE NCC |
| L | 199.7.83.42 | ICANN |
| M | 202.12.27.33 | WIDE Project |
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