Patent ID: 8224994

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: at least one Domain Name System (DNS) server comprising a processing device configured to receive a DNS query; a resolver configured to be in operative communication with said at least one DNS server and to generate a resolved target of the DNS query; and a root zone file including at least one resource record, wherein the at least one DNS server is configured to access said root zone file, and said at least one resource record is configured to resolve the DNS query; wherein the DNS query includes a domain name having a highest level domain (HLD) and the domain name includes valid syntax with respect to the at least one DNS server wherein the processing device of the at least one DNS server is further configured to syntactically process the valid syntax without prior modification; wherein the at least one DNS server is incapable of registering the domain name as part of the at least one DNS server in response to the HLD not corresponding to a known HLD within the at least one DNS server; wherein the at least one DNS server is further configured to receive the DNS query including the domain name that the at least one DNS server is incapable of registering and to reference the resource record for information sufficient for resolution of the DNS query; wherein said resource record includes an Internet Protocol (IP) address; and wherein said HLD of said domain name is a top level domain alias (TLDA) that is not an HLD registered in the DNS server and said IP address corresponds to a network resource configured to determine which namespace provider of a plurality of namespace providers can process said domain name having said TLDA.