If only it were true -
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dr Eberhard W Lisse [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>
> > Yes, I understand this. I run a rather small network, some of it is
> > owned by Speco, some of it is owned by me, and some of it is
> > equipment and services purchased from other organizations. The only
> > mechanism I have for identifying this administrative grouping, and
> > advertising it to the outside world is the speco.com domain
> > name.
>
> You are not advertising it. You are entering the domain name into a
> technical database, that was created because IP numbers are too
> difficult to remember.
>
When we registered speco.com, we could not have the entry made without the
accompanying name resolution service(advertising). So I don't see how we are
not advertising it. When name service is provided in this context, it is
something like publishing, (I know, analogies bad, I just don't know how
else to expalin it) in that the knowledge of the existence of the
conglomeration of hardware and services known as speco.com is being made
available to the entire world.
Whatever the reason for the creation of the DNS, its usefullness has grown
far beyond the simple mapping of names to IP addresses. Think about an MX
record. It doesn't just map name to number, it also implies the existence of
a particular service (email).
There is an even more subtle synergy between domain names and IP addresses.
A domain name is what allows the identifier function to be seperated from
the locator function of an IP address. IP addresses can then just represent
the physical topololgy of a network, which can and does change rapidly. This
allows the concept of a 'network' to evolve from a specific collection of
wires and hardware to a more general grouping of hardware and software
services, with the glue binding it all together being administrative
control, and, of course, the name.
The system that we have now is very close to supporting this, but there are
still some problems relating to how various functions are bundled. There is
an assumption that registering a name implies that I want name resolution
service available to the entire world, but that's not necessarily true.
When I register a domain name, I do it because I wish to use that name
without worrying about a collision with some other entity using the same
name. Since the function of the name is to describe administrative groupings
of hardware and software resources for the benefit of the administrators and
the users of the network, how name resolution service is handled will depend
on the user base. What's overlooked in the current system is that everything
about the network, including the user base, changes and evolves over time.
The only thing that is binary (on, off) is the existence of the network
described by the name. Today, the user base is local. Tommorow the user base
may be the entire world, and I'd want everyone to be able to resolve the
name. Maybe the following year the network will be isolated again, for
whatever crazy reason I come up with.
I want to identify my network, and I want that identity to be stable, no
matter how the network is used. Changing the name of the network really
means taking it apart and gluing it back together again, as the name is a
large part of the definition, and that's a whole lot of work.
What bugs me is I can't see any reason why the current system can't support
this.
David Schutt
