hostname="?"

H

hruodr

What do you use as "top level domain" in rc.conf variable hostname if you do not have a registered domain?

I use .local (hostname="machinename.local"), but I am not sure if that is right.
 
Yes, that was a solution before the inflation of TLDs.

".home" can be registered at any moment. There is perhaps some warranty that this will not happen with
.local, but I do not know if there is any risk using it.
 
Of course I understand the difference!!!!

But did you not see the inflation of TLDs??? There is almost everything as TLD.
 
And that's exactly why these few TLDs are reserved. Unfortunately, none of them is meant for "home networks".
 
hruodr said:
But did you not see the inflation of TLDs??? There is everything.
Click to expand...
Yes, a lot more have been added some time ago. But the process of registering a TLD is not as easy, new TLDs need to be approved by IANA.
 
Zirias said:
but any other choice could clash with a really existing TLD some time in the future.
Click to expand...

Aesthetically is .local also suboptimal, and yes, if zeroconf disappears, the "warranty" disappears also.

I wonder why the "authorities" did not consider "normal" home computer users, offline users, etc.
 
Just inventing a TLD has always been a risk.

There are 3 ways to do it properly:
  • Use your own properly registered domain, or a subdomain of it (that's what I do)
  • Use a subdomain you might get for free e.g. from a dyndns service (what I did in a distant past)
  • Use one of the reserved TLDs
 
hruodr said:
I wonder why the "authorities" did not consider "normal" home computer users, offline users, etc.
Click to expand...
That's a good question. There are special TLDs like .test. They did also reserve special IP addresses (The private ranges; RFC1918) so why not one or two special case TLDs to be used specifically for home or (internal) enterprise networks.
 
It seems there was an attempt to do so, see e.g. https://serverfault.com/a/937808/297939, but IANA didn't include them in their reserved list.

VladiBG it doesn't really help as long as IANA doesn't list them: https://www.iana.org/assignments/special-use-domain-names/special-use-domain-names.xhtml – so far, it's just a suggestion.

edit: An argument against this kind of reserved TLDs you will read from time to time is the clashes it would create when trying to interconnect two such private networks (e.g. via VPN), so globally unique names are always preferred. Of course, the same would result from "misuse" of the reserved TLDs specified in original RFC2606.
 
.xyz domains are just $1.00/year. However, I (and many other mail sites) block them because they do produce a lot of SPAM. It would be a safe and inexpensive solution for an internal network, though.
 
Zirias said:
  • Use one of the reserved TLDs
Click to expand...
Thank you, this is the solution.
I guess this IETF handling is intended to motivate people to waste money for registering a less "embarrassing" domain.
But what else to expect else from a commercial corporate institution, honestly?

Reserved Example Second Level Domain Names​


The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) also currently has the
following second level domain names reserved which can be used as
examples.

example.com
example.net
example.org
Click to expand...

(Expand if you want to see the "embarrassing" stuff)

So, no real need for split DNS, if you can live as an example.
 
hruodr said:
I wonder why the "authorities" did not consider "normal" home computer users, offline users, etc.
Click to expand...
It's not exactly related but it reminded me of this:

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. - Computing History

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation DEC 1977 Ken Olsen made this statement in 1977. It now see...
www.computinghistory.org.uk

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 1977
 
(sry OT)
Yes, there is still much "old" thinking around.
Even Windows is apparently able to kill processes in D-state...
But some operating systems' people consider doing such blasphemic, prefer the users having to reboot production servers.
 
hruodr said:
What do you use as "top level domain" in rc.conf variable hostname if you do not have a registered domain?

I use .local (hostname="machinename.local"), but I am not sure if that is right.
Click to expand...
/etc/rc.conf
hostname="jigoku"

I set the machinename during the base system build and when it gets to the part about configuring DCHP and choosing a network name I click on through and leave that blank. The machinename of my different laptops appear in the router tables and I'm good to go.
 
hruodr said:
I wonder why the "authorities" did not consider "normal" home computer users, offline users, etc.
Click to expand...
In this case, the “authorities” would be the IANA and the IETF.

Offline users can chose any TLD name they want, of course, because there cannot be a conflict.

Basically, home users have several options (beside registering a real domain, of course):
  • The most correct approach is to use the special TLD .home.arpa according to RFC 8375.
  • The next best approach is to use the reserved TLD .example or .example.net. According to RFC 6761, these are not handled specially by software, appliances, name servers etc. (unlike the other reserved TLDs).
  • If you don’t like any of the above, it’s probably ok to use an existing TLD where the chance of a conflict is sufficiently low. For example, you may use .xxx if you don’t intend to access web sites in that TLD, or exchange e-mails with users who have addresses with that TLD. Make sure that you don’t leak addresses to the internet, i.e. if you run a DNS server, it must not send replies concerning .xxx (or whatever you chose) to the outside.
 
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