Re: sockets APIs extensions for Host Identity Protocol

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

>> Fourth, for a variety of reasons, DNS names are not and have never been
>> adequate as general purpose endpoint identifiers, and this situation is
>> getting worse rather than better.  One reason is that DNS names are not
>> equivalent to host names, and emphatically not equivalent to
>> distinguished host names, and haven't been so at least since the web
>> came into existence.  A given DNS name might be bound to a single host,
>> multiple hosts having more-or-less equivalent function, a service, a
>> community of users, or whatever; the binding might be stable or
>> ephemeral; and the name might or might not be suitable as a
>> distinguished name (one chosen preferentially over others for use in
>> indicating that host, group of hosts, service, whatever).  There's no
>> way to tell.
>>     
>
> All of this is true for IP addresses as well.
>   

good point.  though if you collect multiple hosts under the same IP
address, without considering how this will affect the apps that run on
those hosts, you pretty much deserve to lose. 

neither DNS names nor IP addresses work very well as endpoint identifiers.

Keith