The changes, scheduled for February 9, 2004, alter the way a part of a DNS component called the SOA (Start of Authority) Record is generated for .com and .net domains.
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SOAs are used to manage DNS zones, recording information about the zone such as the primary DNS server for the zone, e-mail contact of the person responsible for the zone and a unique serial number.
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Pat Burns, spokesperson for VeriSign, told IDG News Service that the changes, which change the serial number format in .com and .net serial records, will allow VeriSign to make better use of its ATLAS (Advanced Transaction Lookup and Signalling system) technology to make more frequent and efficient updates to .com and .net. The current system involves two daily updates.
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Some experts have expressed concerns that the changes could have unanticipated consequences, possibly interrupting traffic to some .com and .net Web sites. VeriSign has said users will not notice the changes at all.
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VeriSign received industry-wide criticism for its Site Finder service, launched in September 2003, which redirected misspelled and mistyped URLs to a VeriSign-sponsored Web site.
