On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 2:33 PM, Kyle Amon <am...@backwatcher.com> wrote: > An IP address can't get "resolved" by a nameserver. It is a > nameserver's resolution terminus. But this is weird, so I'm open to > suggestions on proper terminology. Converted, perhaps?
Well... in RFC 1035, domain names could not be numeric. But this constraint was relaxed for a variety of reasons. PTR records require numeric subdomains. And RFC 1912 specifically mentions examples like 3com.com, 411.org, 1776.com. So, now, for example, 127.0.0.1.example.com. could be syntactically valid as a domain name. And, if you leave off the trailing dot on a domain name, dns resolvers first try appending whatever has been configured as the default domain and resolving that. In other words, one person could interpret something that looks like an ip address to be part of a domain name even though another person could reasonably think that this is completely invalid. It's easy to be sloppy with the rules when you do not have time to read and understand them all -- especially when they were never intended to be misused the way they are being misused. -- Raul
