# Re: Finding URN->URL servers (fwd)

Keith Moore (moore@cs.utk.edu)
Wed, 16 Feb 1994 22:28:02 -0500

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    Message-Id: <199402170328.WAA10483@wilma.cs.utk.edu>

    From: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>

    To: "Rob Raisch, The Internet Company" <raisch@internet.com>

    Subject: Re: Finding URN->URL servers (fwd)

    In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 16 Feb 1994 18:58:57 PST."

                 <Pine.3.85.9402161857.A16319-0100000@hmmm>

    Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 22:28:02 -0500

> In the MX record, the CPU is a standard NS formatted email address for the
> administrator, and the OS is a URL which points to an IAFA-style meta-
> information document.

If we're going to overload existing record types, better to just use TXT.

> Trivial problem, technically. Hard problem, politically.

Actually, the technical problems are harder that it might first
appear. For the URN->URL lookup system to work, the database needs
to be very scalable and be able to be dynamically updated on a
per-record basis (NOT per-zone). I suspect that most DNS
implementations aren't built for this aren't up to the strain,
and I hesitate to encourage people to use existing DNS servers
for this purpose.

So while it's probably okay to use DNS to *locate* a URN->URL
server, it's probably better to have some other protocol actually
do the lookup. (Then we don't have to try to overload record types,
either.)

Keith

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