Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!yale!ox.com!mudos!mju From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Convincing Smail to use FQDNs Message-ID: Date: 21 Aug 90 04:32:59 GMT References: <3890@ralph.Lafayette.LA.US> Organization: The Programmers' Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI Lines: 26 pja@ralph.Lafayette.LA.US (Pete Alleman) writes: > Maybe I missed something. Under what circumstances would a site with > a FQDN ending with an Internet Top Level Domain not be accessible from > the Internet? Do many sites use names that are indistinguishable from > proper Internet names and have no Internet Name Server records? Well, let's take my site as an example. "mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us" is a FQDN, and ends with an official Internet top-level domain name. If you try "nslookup mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us", you'll be told that it's an MX record, with forwarders leebai.aa.ox.com and itivax.iti.org. But there isn't an A record for mudos, meaning you can't access it through telnet, FTP, or anything else. It isn't directly connected to the Internet. In fact, it's an XT clone running MS-DOS and Waffle, and talks to the outside world solely through UUCP. Maybe you're getting confused. There's a difference between "accessible through the Internet" and "having an Internet nameserver record". In order to be accessible through the Internet, a site must have a valid "A" nameserver record -- but there's nothing to prevent a site that's *not* accessible through the Internet from having any other kind of nameserver record. -- Marc Unangst | mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us | Angular momentum makes the world go 'round. ...!umich!leebai!mudos!mju |