Re: [Asrg] DNS basics, was overloading server names doesn't work

["John R Levine" <[e-mail]>]

>>>>>> Nope, that won't work. CNAMEs don't do a partial match.
>> 
>>> Where did I or anyone else specify a partial match?
>> 
>> The user thinks his POP server is called mail.btinternet.com. When he
>> looks up _report.mail.btinternet.com, what do you expect to happen?
>
> He'll get a TXT record back.  This is nothing but exactly the same mechanism 
> that is used for DKIM and SRV, albeit with a different underscore subdomain.
>
> The DNS construct of partial matching has nothing to do with this mechanism.

Sorry, that's just plain wrong, he'll get NXDOMAIN.  You're expecting 
CNAMEs to do things that they don't do.  Don't take my word for it -- you 
know all the old DNS weenies better than I do so ask them.  Or see 
RFC1034, section 3.6.2 on page 14, and the algorithm in 4.3.2 on page 24, 
in particular step 3.a.

It wasn't a problem for DKIM because it's exceedingly rare and somewhat 
disreputable to use a CNAME to to point to an MX, but as we've seen it's 
very common for the A record for POP and IMAP servers.

R's,
John

PS: We'll save the other reasons CNAMEs don't do what you want for the 
advanced seminar.