[ICANN]<https://www.icann.org/> News Alert https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2015-09-24-en ________________________________ Asunción's National University and ICANN Work Together to Enhance Latin American Internet Infrastructure First DNS L-root instance in Paraguay will provide greater Internet reliability for regional Internet users 24 September 2015 [https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/assets/guachire-de-la-parra-internet-infrastructure-900x1200-24sep15-en.jpg]<https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/assets/guachire-de-la-parra-internet-infrastructure-900x1200-24sep15-en.jpg> [Photo: Ignacio Velázquez Guachire, UNA and Rodrigo de la Parra, ICANN] The first L-Root instance in Paraguay has been successfully installed in Asunción, and will enhance the stability, security and resiliency of the Internet for users throughout Latin America. "We are incredibly excited to announce the implementation of this new L-Root instance in Asunción," said Rodrigo de la Parra, ICANN's Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean. "Joint ventures like these are a critical part of both increasing regional Internet infrastructure and strengthening the global DNS." The launch of the L-Root instance is a joint operation between ICANN and Paraguay's National Computing Center of the National University of Asunción (Centro Nacional de Computación, Universidad Nacional de Asunción - UNA). "This new L-Root instance will strengthen Internet infrastructure, offering greater efficiency, stability and security, in addition to an overall improved Internet experience throughout Paraguay," said Ignacio Velázquez Guachire, General Director of the National Computing Center of the UNA. "We thank ICANN's managers and their technical confidence in NIC.py to be the custodians of this first L-Root instance in our country, which demonstrates the continued cooperation for the development of the region's Internet." Beyond just helping mitigate certain network outages, this new L-Root instance will improve response times for the rapidly growing Internet community in Paraguay and the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole. "ICANN is pleased to see the first L-Root instances in Paraguay. We appreciate the tremendous effort from Asunción's national university in hosting the L-Root. This effort speaks volumes to their commitment to both the Domain Name System and the stability and resiliency of the global Internet, and that of their own Internet experience." said Terry Manderson, Director of DNS Engineering at ICANN. There are 13 "root" DNS servers, identified by alphabetic letters A through M - the "L" root server operated by ICANN being one. Computers typically communicate with each other using numeric addresses, while humans find it easier to use and remember names (for instance, users typically remember the domain name "ICANN.ORG" more easily than the Internet Protocol address, 2620:0:2d0:200::7). The DNS translates names into addresses and the root servers, such as the one installed in Asunción, provide the pointers to the servers for top-level domains (the last part of domain names, such as the "ORG" in "ICANN.ORG"). Spreading this root information geographically by duplicating the root servers in various locations leads to a resilient, dispersed system that reduces the risk of being taken offline by a problem or attack and reduces the time it takes to look up names on the Internet. For more information about L-Root, please visit www.dns.icann.org/<http://www.dns.icann.org/>.