Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!SPARTA.COM!stine
From: stine@SPARTA.COM (Robert Havens Stine)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Multihoming
Message-ID: <8910121457.AA19510@Heisenberg.sparta.com>
Date: 12 Oct 89 14:57:24 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 17

Enough of this practical, reality-based stuff! :-)

Addresses are identifiers that are used to label where messages can be
sent or received.  An IP address identifies a host's network
interface.  A host may have several network interfaces.

Like IP addresses, host names are identifiers.  They are used to label
(surprise!) hosts.  A host may have several host names.

To use a network, a mapping must be made from host name to IP
address(es).  Hence the DNS.

But, as has been amply testified, there is no need for a one-to-one
mapping between the names of a host and the IP addresses of its
interfaces.

- Bob Stine