spf-discuss
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Re: New DNS record issue.

2004-01-13 08:01:52
On Tue, Jan 13, 2004 at 08:51:46AM -0600, wayne wrote:
| In 
<2A1D4C86842EE14CA9BC80474919782E011132E1(_at_)mou1wnexm02(_dot_)vcorp(_dot_)ad(_dot_)vrsn(_dot_)com>
 "Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <pbaker(_at_)verisign(_dot_)com> writes:
| 
| > _spf.aol.com.                255     IN      TXT     "[...]
| 
| 
| Maybe Meng can address the reasons for the change more clearly, but as
| far as I'm concerned, this isn't a major issue and breaking backward
| compatibility at this point in time would not be a good idea.
| 

I think this mechanism would be fine for future extensions to DNS.  But
future extensions to DNS are likely to be less widespread and have less
immediate beneficial impact than SPF.  I can imagine SPF being published
for literally every domain in existence.

And because the SPF project wants to convince every single domain owner
in existence, the delta between "_spf." and "" becomes significant.

It's easier to explain to people "it's a DNS record for your domain just
like A or MX except it's TXT".  Most people aren't interested and will
be quite happy with that.

It's harder to say "okay, contrary to common belief, underscores are
usable in DNS, because, you see, a domain label is technically different
from a hostname, and RFC 2181 of July 1997 updates RFC1035 of November
1987, allowing arbitrary characters in domain labels.  Allocating an
underscore subdomain creates sort of a pocket dimension where you have
free reign over your namespace."  Nobody really cares.  Besides, it's
due to that kind of thinking that some DNS providers won't let you do
underscores.  It's easier to talk them into TXT.

The way I see it, the TXT record has been hidden away for safekeeping
almost since the dawn of the age of DNS.  Now an enemy has appeared that
is worthy of this weapon.  Let us use it!  This was the moment it has
waited for, during the long years it slumbered under the mountain.  Er.
Yeah.  That was a really good movie.

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