[Novalug] ip/dns opinion

James Ewing Cottrell 3rd JECottrell3@Comcast.NET
Fri Aug 17 16:08:55 EDT 2012


I used to make fun of people doing this until I considered.

[0] OK, clearly Names are better than Numbers, unless...
[1] the names are Longer, perhaps because...
[1a] resolv.conf isn't set up for default domains and searching or
[1b] as mentioned, the naming convention is horrid
[1c] even if the canonical names suck, you can use your own aliases.
[2] then again, why do people use 192.168 instead of 10?
[3] whatever people use personally, if a device is In Use, it MUST have 
DNS entries, both Forward and Reverse. Ignore this at your Peril.
[4] DHCP is required to make the Best Effort to keep addresses the same, 
so...
[4a] if you have fewer devices than addresses, you will keep the address
[4b] a hosted OS with a disk like M$, UNIX, or Linux will do this, but...
[4c] embedded devices like routers and switches don't make much effort, 
even during the same session between reboots.
[5] you can't stop people from using IP addresses, but you can forbid 
embedding them in scripts and URLs.
[6] if you are going to use numbers, choose them wisely. perhaps the 
last digit should be the same as the most common port number; so the DNS 
server is x.y.z.53, the Mail Gateway is x.y.z.25, the wen server is 
x.y.z.80, etc. Or assign Ranges to Groups.
[7] remember that an IP Address is a Valid DNS name. I could give my 
machine a "hostname" of 6.6.19.54, or even 06.06.1954 and have it refer 
to a FQDN of 6.6.19.54.example.com (or 06.06.1954.example.com), altho in 
the former case, it might be tried as an IP address first, which is bad.

JIM

On 8/15/2012 6:54 PM, Mark Smith wrote:
> I want your opinions about using IP(v4) addresses directly instead of DNS.
> We have a perfectly good DHCP/DNS system here at work, but for some
> reason some people demand to use IP addresses instead of a DNS name.
> I use the same equipment and use DNS names for everything so I know it's
> not only possible, but quite convenient.
>
> So?  is there some merit in using IP(v4) addresses for network nodes?
> Is there some merit in trying to even convince anyone to use DNS names
> instead of IP addresses.
>
> I just don't get why someone would want to continue to ram barbs into
> their eyes.  I'm usually the one stuck in the 20th century!  Heck,
> it's probably just me with a deep seated need to vent frustration.
>




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