--On Friday, February 15, 2013 14:10 -0800 Joe Touch <touch@xxxxxxx> wrote: > Let's just say that there doesn't appear to be disagreement > that the DNS can handle a-z/0-9/'-'. > > Other values _may or may not_ be permitted or handled opaquely > in the lookup, AFAICT. It remains a question AFAICT. Joe, Except for IDNs (or labels starting with "xn--" more specifically), for which there are special rules, it appears to me that the spec is _extremely_ clear that a lookup operation that fails to deal with those "other values" in labels --including even properly-escaped embedded "." characters -- is unambiguously non-conforming. There should be no "AFACIT" about it, much less a question. Whether or not it is a good idea to use such labels and in what contexts is a different matter. john