The three new name servers feature a technology called anycast. This means that even though they operate as one machine from a network perspective, in practise they are spread all over the world. The six original name servers are located throughout Europe in Amsterdam, Brussels, Ljubljana, London, Milan and Prague. Each is connected to the local national Internet Exchange.
Each .eu name server answers DNS queries regarding .eu domain names. Having multiple name servers placed on different branches of the Internet increases stability in the unlikely event that one of the servers should go down or become unreachable.
Now .eu has nine name servers on different branches of the Internet and, in reality, in even more places due to the anycast technology of the three new servers.
EURid is evaluating the introduction of more anycast name servers later this year.
EURid deploys IPv6 at name server level
Following ICANN’s recent deployment of the new standard for IP addresses, IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), at the root level of the domain name system, EURid has introduced IPv6 to the .eu top-level domain.
IPv6 allows a greater number of IP addresses than the current standard, IPv4, and is gradually being deployed across the Internet as the number of IP addresses in demand steadily approaches the maximum number permitted under IPv4.
Two of .eu’s nine name servers are running IPv6: one of the new NeuStar anycast servers and the name server based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Source: EURid Press Room -- Reprinted with permission -- April 26, 2008