rfc in naming host

[Kevin Darcy]

Anthony Fajri wrote:

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>         dear all,
>
>         what is the rfc about the ethics in giving a name for a host
>         can i use my name as a reverse for my computer?

Well, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "ethics". There are
standards-track RFCs which define the minimum requirements for
hostnames, as far as character set, length, etc. but that's hardly
"ethical". And there are non-standards-track RFCs, e.g. 1178, which give
some (possibly helpful) advice on how to name your host. And then
there's RFC 2100 :-)

You can't use a normal (e.g. .com) name as the reverse for your
computer, since all reverse records are searched under the in-addr.arpa
part of the tree. Technically, you could, I suppose, make the
fully-qualified name of your host the same as its reverse name, but
would you really want a hostname of, say, 3.65.205.167.in-addr.arpa?
What if the address changed? Then you'd have a confusing disconnect
between the hostname and the reverse name. Not to mention the disconnect
between the fully-qualified name of the host and its short name (unless,
of course, you actually named your host "3"). Generally speaking, I
think this would be bad practice, and I think most other sysadmins or
network admins would view it the same way.


- Kevin