Base domain resolution

[Barry Margolin]

In article <fq05b5$7g0$1 at sf1.isc.org>, J <usenet at linuxnuts.net> wrote:

> For years I've been taught to never put an A record on a base domain
> (domain.tld).  I know that just about every major domain does this
> these days but that doesn't make it right.  I'd like to be able to
> support my losing position with technical answers so I can point out
> the potential and future problems before they come back and bite us on
> the ass (a CYA measure for me since I know I will lose this fight).
> As I recall it, there were a number of technical reasons why one
> should not have the base domain resolve to anything but I'm afraid I
> no longer remember what all the reasons are any more.  A couple cheesy
> ones come to mind:

If you're using a third-party web hosting service, using the base domain 
can make things harder.  You can configure a "www" name as a CNAME to 
their server hostname, and they can use whatever technology they want in 
their domain to perform load balancing and failover.  But you can't make 
your base domain a CNAME, you have to hard-code an IP.

A common solution to this is to have the base domain point to your own 
server, that just performs a redirect to the www URL.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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