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Silly question coming from someone not very experienced with DNS servers/resolvers, is there a way to download/cache/resolve all country specific domains (ccTLD

Silly question coming from someone not very experienced with DNS servers/resolvers, is there a way to download/cache/resolve all country specific domains (ccTLDs)? I know there are many sites that sell zone files, like https://zonefiles.io https://zonefiles.io, but aren’t the DNS records supposed to be something freely available?

AndyMcConachie 5y ago
What precisely are you interested in? If you just want the NS records and glue for all the ccTLDs they're in the root zone. https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone If you want the complete zone files from every ccTLD that is a much bigger ask. I'm not sure but I imagine you would have to look into each ccTLD and find out if they're available.
elliottinvent 5y ago
You can download zone files for lots of gTLDs using ICANN’s Centralized Zone Data Service [0]. For ccTLDs there’s no centralised system and availability depends on the country registry. For example, Nominet make the UK zone file and others available for UK registrars for a fee I think. Another approach is to buy WHOIS files from providers like Whoxy [1], the registrant data shouldn’t be used because of GDPR and other restrictions but as a domain list it can be useful. I’ve done a fair bit in this area so if anyone wants any help feel free to send an email - details in profile. 0. https://czds.icann.org/home https://czds.icann.org/home 1. https://www.whoxy.com https://www.whoxy.com
- NKosmatos 5y ago
  Thanks for the hints. I’m interested in collecting all sites/domains for a specific ccTLD (.gr) purely for statistics/curiosity. I know that some countries publish their zones files, but for the GR registry (like many other countries) this is not available. I’m not interested in the WHOIS data, sine as you correctly mention contain sensitive data. I was thinking that somehow if I had my own DNS server I would be able to download all available domains, but after some reading I understood that this is not how DNS servers work. A request from a local client (inside my own LAN) would need to perform an nslookup or web access for each domain, so that the result could be cached.
elliottinvent 5y ago
If anyone has any feedback on using zonefiles.io I’d be interested to hear it

AndyMcConachie 5y ago

What precisely are you interested in? If you just want the NS records and glue for all the ccTLDs they're in the root zone. https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone If you want the complete zone files from every ccTLD that is a much bigger ask. I'm not sure but I imagine you would have to look into each ccTLD and find out if they're available.

elliottinvent 5y ago

You can download zone files for lots of gTLDs using ICANN’s Centralized Zone Data Service [0]. For ccTLDs there’s no centralised system and availability depends on the country registry. For example, Nominet make the UK zone file and others available for UK registrars for a fee I think. Another approach is to buy WHOIS files from providers like Whoxy [1], the registrant data shouldn’t be used because of GDPR and other restrictions but as a domain list it can be useful. I’ve done a fair bit in this area so if anyone wants any help feel free to send an email - details in profile. 0. https://czds.icann.org/home https://czds.icann.org/home 1. https://www.whoxy.com https://www.whoxy.com

NKosmatos 5y ago
Thanks for the hints. I’m interested in collecting all sites/domains for a specific ccTLD (.gr) purely for statistics/curiosity. I know that some countries publish their zones files, but for the GR registry (like many other countries) this is not available. I’m not interested in the WHOIS data, sine as you correctly mention contain sensitive data. I was thinking that somehow if I had my own DNS server I would be able to download all available domains, but after some reading I understood that this is not how DNS servers work. A request from a local client (inside my own LAN) would need to perform an nslookup or web access for each domain, so that the result could be cached.

elliottinvent 5y ago

If anyone has any feedback on using zonefiles.io I’d be interested to hear it