DNS Entries with Port numbers

[Kevin Darcy]

Bruce Embrey wrote:

> Hi:
>
> I have not found any documentation that specifies whether or not you can
> associate a DNS record to a port #. For instance I have a webserver that
> runs on port 7000, is it possible to do something like this:
>
> voyager.hood.edu:7000           IN      A       144.175.2.16
>
> Is this possible or will I need to enter http://voyager.hood.edu:7000 to
> reach it?

Is there a "edu:7000" top-level domain (TLD)? Nope. It shouldn't be necessary
to "document" this fact, since anyone can check it with a simple lookup.

The only way for DNS to tell a client to use a non-standard port number is via
the SRV record type. But this is only a *theoretical* solution: no known
browsers grok SRV yet, so for now you're out of luck.


- Kevin