Dear colleagues, As this new mailing list (dns-wg@ripe.net) has been created and the discussion about a second root server in Europa started I would like to say few words. SWITCH has run an inofficial root name server *) here in Zuerich for quite some time. The reason for setting up this service was the bad connectivity to the US internet in the past. This service was been offered not only to the Swiss universities but to everybody else who wanted to use it. The matter was discussed in the RIPE meetings. *) The file domain/root.zone is periodically fetched via anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil. But no information for the toplevel domains edu, com, org, ... is used. SWITCH offers to officially host and operate a secondary root server. The server would be placed in the western part of Switzerland with good connectivity to CERN (2 Mbit/s, 128 kbit/s backup). This location complements well the root server at NORDUnet. The name server would run on a state of the art SUN server, connected to an uninterruptable power source and be managed by adequat staff. In fact this DNS service is part of an offer SWITCH has handed in to the RARE Operational Unit recently. What the relation to RIPE is concerned I would like to cite from this proposal: "The operation of the root server should be guided by RIPE NCC under the auspice of RARE. The DNS server manager will have to attend RIPE meetings where the set-up of all the DNS servers is discussed and defined." With this message I hope to stimulate the discussion about root name servers in Europa. Willi Huber SWITCH