The RIPE DNS hostcount is done by transferring every possible Domain Name System zones under the mentioned top level domains. Inside these zones, the number of A records is counted, but this is also checked against the machine name, so that machines with the same name, but multiple A records are only counted once. Also, machines with different names but the same A record are only counted once. The above checks are done per top level, not across top levels. Explanation of Columns: CY country code (or top level domain). An up-to-date list of all 2 letter country codes can be found as ftp.ripe.net:ripe/docs/iso3166-codes A '+' after the country name indicates that this country was not present in the previous count. SOA the number of delegated domains (zones) found below this top level domain. In short this will be the number of subdomains below this top level domain that run a seperate nameserver. COUNTED the number of hosts (machines) found under this top level domain Hosts like "loopback", "localhost" etc are excluded from this number (in DNS terms, only A records are examined). DUPL the number of duplicate hosts (machines) found under this top level domain. These are hosts that appear with more than one name, but with the same address (cname records are skipped automatically, and do not fall into this category) REAL the COUNTED number of machines minus the DUPL number of machines CHANGE change of the REAL count for this top level domain compared to the previous count (counts are usually performed once a month, at the end of each month, therefore this figure represents the increase over the last month) Totals There are three totals lines at the bottom of the table. The first is the subtotal for countries which were also in the count the previous month. The second is the subtotal for countries which were NOT in the count the previous month. The final is the sum of the two subtotal lines.