The author recounts their journey of building a custom network stack, DNet, initially as a fun project during computer networking studies at NJU. After abandoning it for four years, they revived it, patching bugs and adding a basic DNS server to serve as authoritative DNS for their DN42 domain 42420167.xyz. Running dig TXT sgp1.dn42.42420167.xyz returns responses directly from their hand-rolled stack, including IPv6 LLA, public key, MP-BGP status, and a Looking Glass service.

Inside DN42, the stack is accessible via IP 172.20.42.224. The author later migrated services to Nix OS but found it unmaintainable due to lack of expertise, then reverted to Debian and now manages DN42 services using pyinfra and Docker Compose to isolate services and avoid configuration drift. The project reflects a belief in decentralized networking, where individual implementation diversity prevents systemic collapse from single vulnerabilities.