Subject: Re: ifaliases
To: Peter Galbavy <peter@wonderland.org>
From: Erik E. Fair <fair@cesium.clock.org>
List: tech-net
Date: 06/27/1996 08:19:42
Having the full URL transmitted in HTTP is a fine idea, but it's not
here yet.

In the mean time, we have a general problem of being able to keep the
URL of clumps of related information stable (i.e. allow it to move
around from server to server without invalidating URLs). I think that
using the DNS to accomplish this (i.e. giving each clump of related
information its own DNS name that always points to a server that will
return the information) is the ideal solution for now; the only thing
it takes is a little discipline in administration (let's argue about
the granularity of a "clump" some other time, please).

We even have the perfect example right in front of us: netbsd.org,
whose www, sup, and ftp servers move around from time to time, but
given some care in doing so, those of us who access the mailing lists,
and other information services associated with NetBSD, don't have to
know or care.

Companies having their own domain names for this purpose is just a
special case of the general one, and just as valid. Hell, each one of
you should probably have your own domain name so that when you change
ISP's, your E-mail address does NOT change.

Anyway, this is not going away, and given that, I still think that a
hostmask for the NetBSD network code is a good idea if we want to
support a lot of IP addresses on the same interface efficiently.

	Erik E. Fair	fair@clock.org