The Curvy Cucumber of DNS4EU and How to Do It Right Next Time

DNS4EU is all in the news. The project seems to have spent loads of EU money on marketing. This backfired, as Network Engineers started to notice and comment on the project. The best account of what's wrong with DNS4EU is probably given by Jens Link. In short, DNS4EU is not in EU, does not implement EU sanctions and rules and, moreover, it is not technically ready to be used by a sizeable fraction of the EU population.

The advice given by Network Engineers to those willing to do it right is usually short, concise and totally undecipherable:

Just use the K and I servers.

This needs some explanation though. Sovereignty over DNS is indeed an important part of EU Digital Sovereignty. Worldwide DNS is controlled by ICANN, a US-based organization. However, it does not claim ownership nor authority over DNS operators.

Without going into much technical details, every DNS query that converts a domain name into an IP address has a chance to arrive to one of the 13 root DNS servers named from A to M.

It turns out that K and I servers are already operated by EU-based organizations and are thus within reach of the EU regulations.

So what EU should do instead of shelling money into the marketing gimmick of DNS4EU is

1. Set up a financing framework to maintain the operation of K and I servers and for the implementation of EU-specific regulations, e.g. the blocking of Russia Today or GDPR enforcement.
2. Set up a legal framework to force all EU ISPs into the use of K and I servers.
3. PROFIT!!!

Want to know more about DNS? You can start with the work of Jula Evans.