[450] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Goverment-sponsorship and name servers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Einar Stefferud)
Tue Mar 26 12:38:46 1991
To: April Marine <april@nisc.sri.com>
Cc: Martin Lee Schoffstall <schoff@psi.com>, jqj@duff.uoregon.edu,
In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 26 Mar 91 08:07:14 -0800.
Reply-To: Stef@ics.uci.edu
From: Einar Stefferud <Stef@ics.uci.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 91 09:24:34 PST
As I read the section of text that is behind this discussion thread, I
believe it applies only to sites that are in fact connected to the
internet in any way such that their addresses may need resolution by a
DNS name resolver, and hence their address must be properly entered
into a qualified Domain Name Server.
The issue only impacts decisions about where a given name server
should be located on the internet, not whether anyone should or should
not have a DNS name.
> The intent here is to weed out companies that have no Internet
> access from applying for domains (since the purpose of a domain is to
> simplify name to address translation in an internet environment).
This is a dangerous suggestion, that DNS names should be reserved for
folks who are defacto connected to the main internet! It suggests
that companies should not get internet names until they connect, and
then they should get a DNS name, and then they should revamp their
entire naming system to suddenly conform to DNS standards!
A very bad suggestion!
Better to suggest that if there is any chance of an interconnection
(including UUCP mail, etc), then a DNS name should be obtained and
used, so that when (if ever) inteconnection happens, it will be a
smooth transition! In the meantime, there is no harm in using a DNS
name in an unconnected network.
> Some companies get confused about the difference between a domain
> name and a network number, and think that if they have an IP network
> address, they should also have a domain. Any machine accessible from
> the Internet via the DNS is considered by the NIC to have "government
> sponsorship."
Well, sometimes it is the other way around, with DNS named network
segments without an IP network number, because they start out using
non-IP protocols, with a mail forwarder.
Best...\Stef
