AlterNIC
Encyclopedia
AlterNIC was an unofficial, controversial Internet
domain name registry
that relied on an alternative DNS root
. The primary purpose of the project was to challenge the monopoly of InterNIC
, the official governing body for generic top-level domain
s (gTLDs) until the creation of the ICANN
in 1998. AlterNIC offered second level domain registration in its own TLD
s at lower prices than InterNIC. However, these domain names could only be resolved by name server
s that were specifically configured to use the AlterNIC root zone
. The project is now defunct; the domain name alternic.net is parked
and no longer associated with AlterNIC.
network information center and domain name registry
service, with the purpose of enhancing the Internet with new information services.
In the mid-1990s
, the Internet was in a governance transition phase. Until then, the organizational structure
of the network was still heavily influenced by its military
, academic
and government
al origins. At the same time, there was a rapidly increasing interest of private
companies, followed by the general public, to gain access to the Internet. Domain name
s began to play a crucial role in business
visibility
, and the number of registrations grew exponentially
.
Initially, registration of new domain names and their maintenance involved no direct costs for the registrant. In 1995, the National Science Foundation
authorized Network Solutions
(NSI), the private company that they had mandated to maintain and operate the registries, to begin charging registrants an annual fee. Some perceived this move as unfair, given that the market was closed to competitors
.
Eugene Kashpureff was one of them. He decided to create an alternative registry to challenge the monopoly
of NSI, despite having no institutional or governmental authority
to do so.
s were not included in the Internet
official root zone
. As a result, only users of manually reconfigured name servers were able to resolve AlterNIC names.
AlterNIC offered several dozens of alternative TLD
s, such as
During the experimental phase, domains could be registered without fees using the .exp and .lnx TLDs. Some TLDs such as .ltd, .med or .xxx were operated directly by AlterNIC. The setup fee for AlterNIC registries was $50. The annual fee was $24, half of the $50 that were charged yearly by NSI
for a .com or .net domain ($15 of the $50 were retained for a US Government fund).
A notable feature of AlterNIC was the possibility to request a new custom TLD for the same price as for registrations in existing TLDs. Established publishing groups had requested their own names: Wired
magazine had reserved .wired and IDG
's affiliate in Europe has reserved .idg
breaks the principle of universal resolvability, unless it is for a strictly private purpose. From a DNS perspective, it prevents some parts of the Internet to reach other parts. Jon Postel
, a significant contributor to Internet standard
s, asserted that it would lead to chaos. In May 2000, the Internet Architecture Board
spoke out strongly against alternative roots in RFC 2826.
the InterNIC
website
, redirecting affected visitors to the AlterNIC website instead, where they could read about the AlterNIC protest or click a link to the InterNIC page. Kashpureff stopped the hijacking three days later on July 14, but started again on July 18. This has led NSI
, the operator of the InterNIC
website, to file a lawsuit
against Kashpureff.
The civil lawsuit was quickly settled, but NSI had also contacted the FBI to investigate whether Kashpureff had broken federal computer crime laws. On October 31, he was arrested in Toronto
on U.S. charges related to wire fraud
and faced extradition
to the United States
. After fighting extradition for two months, he waived his rights, and was extradited to New York City
. He was released on December 24, and sentenced to five years of probation
.
The hijacking was made possible using a DNS cache poisoning
attack, exploiting a security vulnerability in versions of BIND
earlier than 4.9.6.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
domain name registry
Domain name registry
A domain name registry is a database of all domain names registered in a top-level domain. A registry operator, also called a network information center , is the part of the Domain Name System of the Internet that keeps the database of domain names, and generates the zone files which convert...
that relied on an alternative DNS root
Alternative DNS root
The Internet uses the Domain Name System to associate the names of computers with their numeric IP addresses and with other information. The top level of the domain name hierarchy, the DNS root, contains the top-level domains that appear as the suffixes of all Internet domain names. The official...
. The primary purpose of the project was to challenge the monopoly of InterNIC
InterNIC
The Internet Network Information Center, known as InterNIC, was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations from 1972 until September 18, 1998 when this role was assumed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...
, the official governing body for generic top-level domain
Generic top-level domain
A generic top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet....
s (gTLDs) until the creation of the ICANN
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
in 1998. AlterNIC offered second level domain registration in its own TLD
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
s at lower prices than InterNIC. However, these domain names could only be resolved by name server
Name server
In computing, a name server is a program or computer server that implements a name-service protocol. It maps a human-recognizable identifier to a system-internal, often numeric, identification or addressing component....
s that were specifically configured to use the AlterNIC root zone
DNS root zone
A DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in a Domain Name System hierarchy. Most commonly it refers to the root zone of the largest global DNS, deployed for the Internet. Ultimate authority over the DNS root zone rests with the US Department of Commerce NTIA...
. The project is now defunct; the domain name alternic.net is parked
Domain parking
Domain parking is the registration of an Internet domain name without using it for services such as e-mail or a website i.e without placing any content on the domain. This may be done to reserve the domain name for future development, to protect against the possibility of cybersquatting, or to...
and no longer associated with AlterNIC.
History
Eugene Kashpureff created AlterNIC in 1995, defining it as a privately developed and operated InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
network information center and domain name registry
Domain name registry
A domain name registry is a database of all domain names registered in a top-level domain. A registry operator, also called a network information center , is the part of the Domain Name System of the Internet that keeps the database of domain names, and generates the zone files which convert...
service, with the purpose of enhancing the Internet with new information services.
In the mid-1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
, the Internet was in a governance transition phase. Until then, the organizational structure
Organizational structure
An organizational structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. It can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its...
of the network was still heavily influenced by its military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
, academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
and government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
al origins. At the same time, there was a rapidly increasing interest of private
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
companies, followed by the general public, to gain access to the Internet. Domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
s began to play a crucial role in business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
visibility
Visibility
In meteorology, visibility is a measure of the distance at which an object or light can be clearly discerned. It is reported within surface weather observations and METAR code either in meters or statute miles, depending upon the country. Visibility affects all forms of traffic: roads, sailing...
, and the number of registrations grew exponentially
Exponential growth
Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate of a mathematical function is proportional to the function's current value...
.
Initially, registration of new domain names and their maintenance involved no direct costs for the registrant. In 1995, the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
authorized Network Solutions
Network Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC is a technology company founded in 1979. The domain name registration business has become the most important division of the company. As of January 2009, Network Solutions managed more than 6.6 million domain names.-History:...
(NSI), the private company that they had mandated to maintain and operate the registries, to begin charging registrants an annual fee. Some perceived this move as unfair, given that the market was closed to competitors
Competition
Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...
.
Eugene Kashpureff was one of them. He decided to create an alternative registry to challenge the monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
of NSI, despite having no institutional or governmental authority
Authority
The word Authority is derived mainly from the Latin word auctoritas, meaning invention, advice, opinion, influence, or command. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state or by academic knowledge of an area .-Authority in Philosophy:In...
to do so.
Alternative TLDs
AlterNIC started operating their registries even though their name serverName server
In computing, a name server is a program or computer server that implements a name-service protocol. It maps a human-recognizable identifier to a system-internal, often numeric, identification or addressing component....
s were not included in the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
official root zone
DNS root zone
A DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in a Domain Name System hierarchy. Most commonly it refers to the root zone of the largest global DNS, deployed for the Internet. Ultimate authority over the DNS root zone rests with the US Department of Commerce NTIA...
. As a result, only users of manually reconfigured name servers were able to resolve AlterNIC names.
AlterNIC offered several dozens of alternative TLD
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
s, such as
- .alt
- .biz (unrelated to the subsequent, official .biz.bizbiz is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by businesses...
gTLD created by the ICANNICANNThe Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
) - .corp
- .eur (European name services, by NetName)
- .fam
- .free
- .sex
- .usa (designed as a competitor to the official .us.us.us is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United States and was established in 1985. Registrants of .us domains must be United States citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United States...
) - .xxx (unrelated to the .xxx.xxx.xxx is a sponsored top-level domain intended as a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility . The registry is operated by ICM Registry LLC. The ICANN Board voted to approve the sTLD on March 18,...
that was first approved, then revoked by the ICANN, and then approved again)
During the experimental phase, domains could be registered without fees using the .exp and .lnx TLDs. Some TLDs such as .ltd, .med or .xxx were operated directly by AlterNIC. The setup fee for AlterNIC registries was $50. The annual fee was $24, half of the $50 that were charged yearly by NSI
Network Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC is a technology company founded in 1979. The domain name registration business has become the most important division of the company. As of January 2009, Network Solutions managed more than 6.6 million domain names.-History:...
for a .com or .net domain ($15 of the $50 were retained for a US Government fund).
A notable feature of AlterNIC was the possibility to request a new custom TLD for the same price as for registrations in existing TLDs. Established publishing groups had requested their own names: Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
magazine had reserved .wired and IDG
IDG
International Data Group is a technology media, research, event management, and venture capital organization.IDG evolved from International Data Corporation which was formed in 1964 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, by Patrick Joseph McGovern and a friend, Fred Kirch...
's affiliate in Europe has reserved .idg
Controversy
While a part of the Internet community praised the initiative, many others considered it harmful to the Internet. Using an alternative DNS rootAlternative DNS root
The Internet uses the Domain Name System to associate the names of computers with their numeric IP addresses and with other information. The top level of the domain name hierarchy, the DNS root, contains the top-level domains that appear as the suffixes of all Internet domain names. The official...
breaks the principle of universal resolvability, unless it is for a strictly private purpose. From a DNS perspective, it prevents some parts of the Internet to reach other parts. Jon Postel
Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
, a significant contributor to Internet standard
Internet standard
In computer network engineering, an Internet Standard is a normative specification of a technology or methodology applicable to the Internet. Internet Standards are created and published by the Internet Engineering Task Force .-Overview:...
s, asserted that it would lead to chaos. In May 2000, the Internet Architecture Board
Internet Architecture Board
The Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
spoke out strongly against alternative roots in RFC 2826.
Hijacking of InterNIC's website
On July 11, 1997, Kashpureff hijackedDNS hijacking
DNS hijacking or DNS redirection is the practice of redirecting the resolution of Domain Name System names to other DNS servers. This is done for malicious purposes such as phishing; for self-serving purposes by Internet service providers to direct users' HTTP traffic via the ISP's own webservers...
the InterNIC
InterNIC
The Internet Network Information Center, known as InterNIC, was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations from 1972 until September 18, 1998 when this role was assumed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, redirecting affected visitors to the AlterNIC website instead, where they could read about the AlterNIC protest or click a link to the InterNIC page. Kashpureff stopped the hijacking three days later on July 14, but started again on July 18. This has led NSI
Network Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC is a technology company founded in 1979. The domain name registration business has become the most important division of the company. As of January 2009, Network Solutions managed more than 6.6 million domain names.-History:...
, the operator of the InterNIC
InterNIC
The Internet Network Information Center, known as InterNIC, was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations from 1972 until September 18, 1998 when this role was assumed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...
website, to file a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against Kashpureff.
The civil lawsuit was quickly settled, but NSI had also contacted the FBI to investigate whether Kashpureff had broken federal computer crime laws. On October 31, he was arrested in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
on U.S. charges related to wire fraud
Wire fraud
Mail and wire fraud is a federal crime in the United States. Together, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343, and 1346 reach any fraudulent scheme or artifice to intentionally deprive another of property or honest services with a nexus to mail or wire communication....
and faced extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. After fighting extradition for two months, he waived his rights, and was extradited to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He was released on December 24, and sentenced to five years of probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
.
The hijacking was made possible using a DNS cache poisoning
DNS cache poisoning
DNS cache poisoning is a security or data integrity compromise in the Domain Name System . The compromise occurs when data is introduced into a DNS name server's cache database that did not originate from authoritative DNS sources. It may be a deliberate attempt of a maliciously crafted attack on a...
attack, exploiting a security vulnerability in versions of BIND
BIND
BIND , or named , is the most widely used DNS software on the Internet.On Unix-like operating systems it is the de facto standard.Originally written by four graduate students at the Computer Systems Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley , the name originates as an acronym from...
earlier than 4.9.6.
External links
- The Internet Archive Wayback Machine List for AlterNIC.net (their last copy before the domain began being used for advertising is of April 21 1999)
- Eugene Kashpureff's personal homepage
- Justice Department press release announcing guilty plea
- Photographs of an AlterNIC t-shirt distributed at a conference in the mid-90s, including a list of nameservers which respected AlterNIC at the time