cname quick question

Tim Maestas tmaestas at dnsconsultants.com
Wed Feb 28 05:33:54 UTC 2001



> As a user I understand more on the need side and less on the solution side.
> With the increasing trend of outsourcing, co-branding, and partnership on
> the Internet, it is more and more common that we, DNS users, need to specify
> domain name to a server that is not in our control. In many cases, we can
> solve this by using a CNAME record. However, when the aliasing is for the
> domain itself, we do have a problem. The simple 'solution' of using an A
> record works for a while until the other party changes their IP for one
> reason or another. When this happens, your service is practically down until
> you diagnose the problem, change the A record and let it propagate.

	In my opinion, if you have outsourced to a company that
	doesn't have the common courtesy to inform you that
	the server that is hosting your site is being re-addressed,
	then you are being ripped off, whatever you are paying.  It
	seems to me that it is *far* less work to insure that you
	have an agreement with your hosting providor that states
	that you will be notified of any IP changes to the server
	hosting your site than to modify all of the DNS servers on the
	internet and re-write the RFC's.

	Any issues that make it impractical to use an A record on 
	the zone name, in my opinion, are procedure/vendor-relationship
	based, rather than strictly technical.

-Tim





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