Bind 8 special characters

[Mark.Andrews at iengines.com]

> In article <84dtgi$bgn$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>, "A.R." <gauged at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > System: Red Hat 6.0
> > Version: Bind 8
> > Problem:  Special Characters
> > Description:
> > We are implementing dns on this red hat box.
> > Some computer names on this existing network
> > have "underscore" characters (_) in their host
> > name.  Is it possible to use underscore characters
> > in this version of bind.
> 
> The short answer is no.  The long answer depends on who you talk to.  I
> was told by my ISP back some 5 years now that there was a change to the
> RFC that striped underscores as a valid character.  Just this week I
> discovered that is was not an RFC change but a change in the BIND code
> that outlawed underscores.  Either way, they don't work and you will
> need to change them.

	Underscore was NEVER a valid character for a hostname.
	See RFC 952 and its predecessors.  If you connect to the
	Internet you play by its rules.

	BIND, by default, rejects zones which contain illegal
	hostnames or maildomains.

	Mark
> 
> What I have done for my hosts with underscores is replace the
> underscore with a dash in DNS.  Since the machines talk IP anyway, it
> really doesn't matter, unless you have an application that is tied to
> the host name....
> 
> DAVID
> 
> 
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--
Mark Andrews, Internet Engines Inc. / Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at iengines.com