Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!MSU.EDU!08071TCP
From: 08071TCP@MSU.EDU (Doug Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: name handling in DNS resolvers
Message-ID: <9105190026.AA08437@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 18 May 91 22:22:36 GMT
References: <jbvb@ftp.com>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Doug Nelson <NELSON@msu.edu>
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 16

I fully understand the issues with using any sort of default domain or
search list when given a dotted name, whether the default is used first
or last, but I don't see where this logic applies to a single part name.
In this case, with the usual longest to shortest search, I'm only going
to search within my own institution.

My solutions to this are:  a) put CNAMEs for most of the general hosts
and resources in our top-level domain (MSU.EDU), and b) point PC/TCP at
IEN 116 service as a backup to domain name service, primarily to resolve
single part host names that don't fit within the chosen domain.  This
works, in part, by automating the process which generates both the DNS
table and the hosts file used by the IEN 116 server, ensuring that they
remain in sync.

Doug Nelson
Michigan State University