We are accustomed to dealing with the slowness of the Internet and generally can pinpoint the problem as an inadequate PC, too little bandwidth to the ISP, and/or inadequate server capacity at the ISP. We have recently discovered still another bottleneck: too few root name servers.
A root name server is a computer that holds the 'routing information for the Internet's naming system. It allows a PC to be connected with the computer which hosts the Web pages sought. Each request for a Web page generates at least two transactions before content is retrieved: one from the searcher's PC to the root name server, and one from the root name server to confirm the information. There are only 13 root name servers in the world to serve more than 150 million Internet users.
Without knowing where one's root name server computer is or how big the bandwidth is between one's ISP and the root name server, it is hard to know if the problem lies there. However, if one is using a high-end machine, has adequate bandwidth to the ISP, and the ISP has adequate capacity, the problem is likely to lie with the root name server or, more likely, the ISP's bandwidth to the root name server. When comparison shopping ISPs, it is good to divide the number of accounts an ISP has into the total bandwidth it has to its root name server(s). The greater the bandwidth per account, the better. As only a small fraction of accounts will be active at any one time, the figures will be small. It is the comparison that counts.
