- From: Ben Laurie <ben@gonzo.ben.algroup.co.uk>
- Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 19:21:32 +0000 (GMT)
- To: Ross Patterson <Ross_Patterson@ns.reston.vmd.sterling.com>
- Cc: http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com
Ross Patterson wrote: > > Ben Laurie <ben@gonzo.ben.algroup.co.uk> writes: > > >I was about to point this out. But it goes further. The point of a URL is that > >it provides _complete_ information on how to retrieve the specified resource. > >TCP is therefore mandated by http: in order to make the information complete > >(we then know that we resolve the hostname with DNS and connect with TCP). > > Actually, TCP and port 80 are mandated by the fact that you've searched > the DNS for an IP address that matched the specified name. People tend > to forget that the DNS can and does support more than just IP. If you'd > searched using a different record class (e.g. CHAOS), you'd need to use > the appropriate native stream-transport protocol. It is perfectly > reasonable for a given name to have both IP and non-IP data in the DNS, > and which you ask for would depend on which you wanted. I hadn't forgotten this. But if http: didn't mandate TCP and I found an IP address and a CHAOS one for the same host, how would I access it? Not defined. I may find an MX record for the host, but does this mean I can do HTTP over SMTP? No. Cheers, Ben. -- Ben Laurie Phone: +44 (181) 994 6435 Email: ben@algroup.co.uk Freelance Consultant and Fax: +44 (181) 994 6472 Technical Director URL: http://www.algroup.co.uk/Apache-SSL A.L. Digital Ltd, Apache Group member (http://www.apache.org) London, England. Apache-SSL author
Received on Tuesday, 18 February 1997 14:11:01 UTC