Re: Domain name servers and routes

[kevinr%suntan.tandem.com%ucsd.edu@Sdsc.BITnet]

>The domain stuff uses NAMES. Still a flat name-space and indeed having its
>problems incorporated BUT HAMS live with inperfect solutions.

Just because the name of the service is amateur, doesn't mean we can't
conduct ourselves in a professional and intelligent manner!

>(If it was perfect it would not be hammish).
>On the PBBS side CALL@PBBS.COUNTRY.STATE.WORLD.UNIVERSE is not a NAME but
>(SURPRISE.....) a route. Yes, a ROUTE. We as pbbs user have to tell the
>system where it has to go to.

Source routing is not my idea of a good idea.  It's much too static,
ESPECIALLY for the Ham community!

>For every one connected to (a part of) the Internet , NAMES are unique and
>a route to them can be found trough servers ( i.e. NAMESERVERS). Once you are
>on your own( i.e. outside and not connected to ) the Internet,
>No one can tell you how to get "there".

The goal of NAMESERVERS is to translate a human readable ASCII character
string (" a name") into a uniform well understood binary number that computer
based routers can understand ("an IP address").

> And those telling that an IP address has no routing info in it has to
>rethink.... Look at 44.137.x.x and YOU KNOW that you have to cross the atlantic

> to reach it. (it does not give a direct beam reading but close.)

44.137.x.x is a destination, NOT a ROUTE!  Sure, because Brian didn't want
to have to be the person who had to personally assign all the addresses in
a flat namespace, he designated others to do the same by geographic region.

If we ever get a true AMPRNET going, with real dynamic routing, and some
kind of nameservers, pieces of 44.137 could very well be on either side
of the Atlantic.

Brian, am I mistaken?  Did you intend for the IP addresses to be source
based routing? If so, I need to re-think pieces of the 510K~2Mbps network
we've got started here.

>NAMES are NO ROUTES.(but dammed handy if used that way).

Handy as it may seem, source routing has it's pitfalls, and we should
consider those before we leap ( sorry I'm also a timekeeper person).

N6RCE