On 15 feb 2013, at 23:45, Warren Kumari <warren@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Sure -- the DNS protocol *cannot* "handle any value in the octets" -- in fact, there are an *infinite* number of values it cannot handle *in the octets*. For example, it cannot handle 257. It also cannot handle 321, nor 19.3... Ok, it is obvious Friday...somewhere... Once when being on IESG way back when I was tasked to write the response to the letter we got with a suggestion on an alternative solution for the "running out of IPv4 addresses" problem. The proposal was to not stop counting at 255 in each of the four numbers separated by periods, but continue to (at least) 999. Patrik