[62863] in North American Network Operators' Group
Detecting a non-existent domain
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kee Hinckley)
Tue Sep 23 17:10:53 2003
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 16:51:27 -0400
To: nanog@merit.edu
From: Kee Hinckley <nazgul@somewhere.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Getting practical for a minute. What is the optimal way now to see
if a given host truly exists? Assume that I can't control the DNS
server--I need to have this code run in any (*ix) environment.
Assume also that I don't want to run around specialcasing specific IP
addresses or TLDs--this needs to work reliably no matter what the
domain. User gives me a string, and I need to see if the given host
is a real machine.
An answer from Verisign would be most appropriate here, since they
have done "extensive research" on the impact of their new service, so
presumably they figured out the answer to this problem and have code
samples available for distribution. However I get the feeling from
their press releases that they've forgotten there is more to the
internet than just the web.
--
Kee Hinckley
http://www.messagefire.com/ Next Generation Spam Defense
http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/ Writings on Technology and Society
I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.
