Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!bu.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!erg.sri.com!davy
From: davy@erg.sri.com
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Philosophical question
Message-ID: <9010231539.AA06606@quetzalcoatl.erg.sri.com>
Date: 23 Oct 90 15:39:07 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet
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Here's a philosophical question:

	Should there be an A record for a domain name itself?

For example, our domain name is erg.sri.com.  You can send mail to
"user@erg.sri.com" since there's an MX record, but you can't say "ftp
erg.sri.com", since there's no A record.  You have to FTP to a
specific host.

I used to have an A record for our domain, but then I decided it was
the wrong thing to do, since one machine doesn't really represent the
domain.  On the other hand, you could argue that if someone knows my
mail address is "davy@erg.sri.com", it would be logical for them to
FTP to "erg.sri.com", and expecting them to know that the FTP host is
"sparkyfs.erg.sri.com" is not right.

Checking around the DNS seems to indicate a lack of consensus on this.
Some sites provide an A record for the domain name, some sites don't.

What's the consensus on this list?  Please respond directly to me and
not to the list, and I'll summarize the results to the list in a week
or so.

Dave Curry
SRI International