Russell Beattie Notebook

Spain gets world�s fourteenth root server

The Spanish Minister of Science and Technology, Josep Piqu�, has inaugurated in downtown Madrid the world�s fourteenth root server. Europe now has three root servers, located in England, Sweden and Spain. The Spanish root server will increase the speed of internet traffic and, since it is a �copy� of another planetary server, an attack in another �root� will not affect the internet in Spain.

The non-profit organization Espanix serves as a host for this root server, whose purpose is to translate internet domain names to IP addresses (numeric sequences). The manager of Espanix, Crist�bal L�pez, explained, "to have a root server (in Spain) will mean that we�ll be able to browse the internet faster. We will also be able to reduce some costs since we will not need to go abroad in order to access a root server, and, most of all, Spain becomes a centre for the world internet transactions, which is a boon for internet growth in our country."