Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote: > On Wed, 31 Jul 2002 11:46:47 PDT, Ed Gerck said: > > > The IP address of the root server is part of any name today, and it resides > > in your browser. To contrast, what I said does not have the IP address > > Odd.. There's no mention of the root server in my copy of Mozilla. There's no > mention of the root server in my /etc/resolv.conf. Given my firewall rules, if > a packet arrived from a root server, it would be thrown on the floor. > > Obviously Ed's understanding of DNS as it actually works, and my machine's > understanding of it, are wildly divergent. Fortunately for my productivity, > one of them actually works. First, thank you for the opportunity to correct myself. I should have written: "The IP address of the root server is part of any name today, and it resides in your computer. " Now, when your browser takes a DNS name and sends it for resolution, the result actually depends on your browser. If you use NS 4.7, for example, and try www.valdis.klet you most probably will NOT get a PAGE NOT FOUND. You will get a page that has to with some of your internal browser settings, with no warning whatosoever. Now, if you type www.valdis.klet/page.htm you will probably get 404 PAGE NOT FOUND. The choices are all made for you, nice no? It may be relevant, though, that they are actually the wrong choices. > There *is* a mention in resolv.conf of 3 or 4 IP addresses that are willing > to do recursive DNS lookups for me if I ask nicely. This implies that in > normal day-to-day operation, I' stuck with whatever THEIR concept of 'root' > is. Yes. The choice has been made for you -- just like that Netscape choice above. > > Fortunately for myself, if those IP addresses get confused, I have the > technical skill to work around it, and the political clout to go down > the hall and say "Umm... Laurie? Phil? Carl? What are you guys up to?" > > Of course, 99.998% of users are NOT in that position, and we need to > keep that in mind. Yes, that is why my suggestion was for a meta-system to the DNS, which can be chosen by the user (unlike NS and your root server hints in the resolver) and that automatically disambiguates names -- or asks the user to do so (if and how the user so desires). Cheers, Ed Gerck