Re: [tlug] Problems with au ADSL/network setup

[Kalin KOZHUHAROV <me.kalin@example.com>]

On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 11:32 PM, Daniel A. Ramaley
<daniel.ramaley@example.com> wrote:
> On 2013-12-10 at 11:33:33 Simon Cozens wrote:
>> $ ping 134744072
>> PING 134744072 (8.8.8.8): 56 data bytes
>> 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=44 time=53.632 ms
>
> Looks like octal and hex also work for that:
>
> $ ping 01002004010
> PING 01002004010 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
>
> $ ping 0x8080808
> PING 0x8080808 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
>
> I wonder what would happen if a new top-level domain was created in a
> form that looks like a hex number, say "0x0". And then if someone
> registered 0x0.0x0.0x0.0x0. If ping sees that pattern, it interprets it
> as an IP. Clearly we need some out-of-band way to denote whether a
> string is meant to be interpreted as an IP or as a name, to avoid this
> problem in the hypothetical future where "0x0" is allowed to be a top-
> level domain.  :)
> __
simpler: TLDs cannot be numbers per RFC1123:

>> However, a valid host name can never
>> have the dotted-decimal form #.#.#.#, since at least the
>> highest-level component label will be alphabetic.

<rant>In a related topic, I really think IDN shouldn't have been
allowed in the first place; /me despite being born in Bulgaria
(Cyrillic alphabet) and living in Japan (khiragana, katakana, kanji -
you name it).</rant>

Kalin.