Sites that points their A Record to localhost

[Jason Hellenthal]

Wow all this over a lowly 127.0.0.1. Hate to imagine what would have happened if it was an AAAA record. Sheesh nuclear fallout ? ;-)

-- 
 Jason Hellenthal
 Voice: 95.30.17.6/616
 JJH48-ARIN

> On Jan 10, 2014, at 23:36, Joseph S D Yao <jsdy at tux.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 2014-01-10 15:01, Eduardo Bonsi wrote:
>> ...
>> It seems like they have their domain configuration A Record pointed
>> to the localhost. We all know that the localhost is not routable
>> outside of the internet. Therefore I am sure their website cannot
>> resolve out of the 127.0.0.1.
>> In addition to that, it is possible that this is happening only here
>> because of the way our Server configuration is setup in the OS X to
>> bring the resolver to the localhost first before it can go out to the
>> distributed domains/websites through the Apache conf.
> ...
> 
> 
> There seems to be a pile of misconceptions here.
> 
> (1) There is no requirement at all that a domain name have an A record. It does not have to resolve to an IP address at all.  It only has to have an SOA record and an NS record (preferably more than one); and not even that, if it is a subdomain that is not a separate zone.
> 
> (2) There is no requirement that a domain name refer to the Web site for that domain.  I personally don't like that (for no special reason), and neither apparently does the owner of this domain, who forces people to go to the trouble of typing in www.p3net.net to get to his or her Web site.  Incidentally, there is no requirement that the domain name refer to a mail server, either (which used to be common before the Web existed), or to an FTP server, or to a Telnet server, or to a nuclear reactor control device.  Or to anything.
> 
> (3) However, any name MAY resolve to any IP address, routable or not.  That doesn't mean there's anything useful, or even related to that domain, at that IP address.
> 
> (4) "127.0.0.1" is the IP equivalent of the English language word "me". If I say, "me", I am referring to myself.  If you say, "me", you are referring to yourself.  It cannot be used to direct anyone to somewhere else.  In fact, some use it to deflect probers AWAY from themselves, and back on the prober's own server.  (E.g., if I wanted to probe "p3net.net", my server would be probing itself!)
> 
> (5) 127.0.0.1 is not among the IP addresses mislabeled as "unroutable". It is always routable.  To right here.  Well, for you, right there.
> 
> (6) Just because OS X has 127.0.0.1 as the resolver has no effect on what that resolver returns.  Don't confuse the concepts.
> 
> I think there were some others, but it's getting late.
> 
> Joe Yao
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