Looking for RFC

[Mark.Andrews at nominum.com]

> In article <3873E9C5.6799F0CC at daimlerchrysler.com>,
> Kevin Darcy  <kcd at daimlerchrysler.com> wrote:
> >Wightman,Andrew wrote:
> >
> >> Can anyone point me to the correct/latest RFC that contains information
> >> about restricted characters within host names for use with DNS?
> >
> >Sorry to nitpick your question, but not all hosts are Internet-connected,
> >and even those that are, may not use their "hostname" -- the name by which
> >the OS instance identifies itself in text form -- for access over the
> >Internet. The RFC's wouldn't presume to cover such situations. The most
> >you're likely to find is an RFC which defines legal "Internet hostnames",
> >i.e. names used for accessing hosts over the Internet. That would be
> >RFC 1123. It incorporates by reference an earlier RFC (952) that defined
> >the format of the HOSTS.TXT file, a kind of replicated,
> >network-encompassing /etc/hosts file the non-scalability of which led to
> >the development of DNS.
> 
> If you're using DNS to store an A record, you're presumed to be following
> the Internet protocols, even if you're just on a private internet.  So BIND
> will enforce the RFC's rules.
> 
> The naming restrictions aren't applied to non-A records (well, they might
> be applied to MX records as well, since the part after the @ in an email
> address is required to be a hostname).
> 
	They are applied to MX owners and rdata fields the contain email
	addresses as RFC 822 limits what is legal as a mail domain.  RFC
	822 and RFC 952 have the same syntax.

	Mark
--
Mark Andrews, Nominum Inc. / Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at nominum.com