On Saturday 20 September 2003 18:13, Dean Anderson wrote: > On Sat, 20 Sep 2003, Masataka Ohta wrote: > > Dean; > > > > > The "set" is the set of *registered* names. The proper and only way to > > > query this set is through whois. > > > > The only reason to have domain names registered is to use it > > through DNS. > > The only reason we have DNS is to associate information such as IP > addresses with names. Registration is far more important than the > protocol. > Actually registration tells "who" (as in what servers) to query _for_ DNS. > > Whois may be a useful tool for registration convenience but is of > > secondary importance. > > This is the tail wagging the dog. > > > If you disagree, let me control DNS reply of your domain "av8.com", > > while keeping whois response to "av8.com" as is. > > I also say that power is of secondary importance to computing. What we > are interested in is the result of computing. We do not care about power, > unless I give you control over the power switch. > > > > DNS has nothing to > > > do with registration > > > > If you are arguing that verisign registration has nothing to do > > with DNS, I have no reason to disagree. > > I think you missed this: > > Registration -> DNS > > DNS !-> Registration > > The symbol '->' is read to mean "implies something about". > > You are correct that Registration has a lot to do with DNS. But DNS has > nothing to do with Registration, as I said. You cannot check a > registration via DNS. This is what abusers of reverse DNS are doing, or > rather, were attempting to do. > > > Then, for DNS use, we need another registration which has much > > to do with DNS. > > > > Verisign can still continue to operate their current registry > > for "com" and "net" for their whois query, though it has nothing > > to do with "com" and "net" TLDs in DNS reply. > > > > Masataka Ohta My psyc professor always said - "The norm _is_" - meaning that what people do, regardless of how logical, correct, or whatever, at some point "becomes" the normal accepted behavior. As in the statement "When in Rome...". Such is the situation here, in that the norm has become to "accept" that no dns (eg nxdomain) has meant no registration or a suspended registration. Regardless of the semantics and word dicing - the "norm" has been changed by Versign's actions. -- Larry Smith SysAd ECSIS.NET sysad@ecsis.net