DNS Help

[Barry Margolin]

In article <37BA04C2.5AC68DAB at netscape.net>,
Ronald Procopio  <RonaldMarkProcopio at netscape.net> wrote:
>Barry Margolin wrote:
>> 
>> In article <37AA0786.59F507F6 at cisco.com>,
>> Michael Voight  <mvoight at cisco.com> wrote:
>> >Sorry, I don't have an answer, but why would you put 120 addresses on an
>> >interface?
>> 
>> You've never heard of virtual servers?  Presumably his nameserver is also a
>> web server.
>
>
>Virtual servers don't have to have different ips's.  It is an option
>that usually has to do with the clients expected browser as some older
>browsers did not work well with virtual hosts that didn't have their own
>ip.

I'm fully aware of that.  I'm also aware that many web site operators wish
to remain compatible with as many versions of browsers as possible, so they
continue to use multiple IP addresses.  Michael Voight's question suggested
that multiple addresses on an interface was an uncommon thing, whereas
it's still probably the most common way to implement virtual servers.

I also recently saw a post describing a limitation of hostname-based
virtual servers.  If you have a secure (SSL) server and want to use
different certificates for each virtual host, they have to have different
IP addresses.  This is because the the hostname isn't sent until the HTTP
request is sent, but SSL authentication is performed when the connection is
first established.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at bbnplanet.com
GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.