Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!decwrl!sgi!vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Who pays the bill? Summary: what is a FQDN? Message-ID: <66582@sgi.sgi.com> Date: 10 Aug 90 02:07:15 GMT References: <26A738A8.725B@tct.uucp> <1990Aug8.214750.1614@wolves.uucp> Sender: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA Lines: 40 > Wrong, if it isn't directly connected, and does not have a > valid MX record at the appropriate hosts, IT IS NOT A FQDN! The DNS is > a fully controlled system, the fact that some people abuse it and use > domains without insuring MX'ing is in place, that is THEIR error and > problem. Consider "foo.bar.bozo". Is it a FQDN? I bet you'll say no because "bozo" is not in 1066 or where ever the current list of top-levels is kept. Now consider "foo.uunet.net". Is it a domain name? I bet you'll say yes, since you can productively ask the root servers about "uunet.net" Finally take "...!trash!foo.bar.bozo!user" and "...!trash!foo.uunet.net!user" Are either "foo.bar.bozo" or "foo.uunet.net" FQDNs in that context? It is sadly likely that many people will presume to answer for the owners of trash. What if trash is a novel Bitnet/CSNET/JANET/EBCDIC device that considers "." an ordinary character? (Please do not instruct me on any of those accronyms. I already know far more about them than I want to know.) There is no Law of UUCP carved in stone by Chesson that makes "." an illegal hostname or username character in a UUCP route. There is no rule saying strings separated by "." in a UUCP host name must be known by nic.ddn.mil, unlike that other universe, which would be discussed not here in comp.mail.uucp but in comp.mail.sendmail or comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domain. UUCP (tm) is UUCP, different from the Internet (tm). Then there are Bitnet, Fido, X.400, and other things not dreamed of in our philosophies. This debate is about whether any person can reliably know everything others know, want, and do. Some people believe the answer is yes. The rest of us are amazed. Enough. Vernon Schryver vjs@sgi.com