Infrastructure services
Our mission is to create an Internet for all New Zealanders that is safe, accessible and a place for good.
To help achieve this we provide several services dealing with infrastructure and data:
- Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers
- Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) key servers
These are free, reliable and fully supported by us. You'll also find information on:
- DNS
- DNSSEC
PGP key servers
PGP converts the sender’s message into unreadable text. It also verifies the sender’s identity and confirms that the message wasn’t tampered with in transit. The recipient uses a key to convert the text so they can read it.
You need to create two PGP keys: one which you keep private and another one which you publish on a PGP key server so that others can find you.
NTP Networks
Each computer regularly contacts the servers in its network to verify the time. The computer processes the responses it received from the different servers to work out the most accurate time.
DNS
This infrastructure is necessary to enable .nz domain names to work and consequently has to be available 100% of the time to ensure that there is never a time when .nz domain names cannot be used.
DNSSEC
It's also a mechanism for finding and verifying the keys used to verify these signatures. We have been extensively involved in the development of DNSSEC standards and tools and the signing of the root nameservers. DNSSEC has been fully deployed for all our zones since late 2012.