draft-iab-dns-choices-02.txt comments: host names vs domain names

[wayne <wayne@schlitt.net>]

In section 3.2, "Add a prefix to the owner name", it uses examples
such as _mail.example.com.

I suspect that there is a large amount of confusion between what a
"host name" is and a "domain name" right here on this list.


The underscore in _mail prefix is used to ensure that the domain name
is not a valid host name.  Most DNS hosting services allow you
to only create subdomains made up of letter-digit-hyphens.  I think
there will be a large educational problem explaining to the general
public why you can create _mail.example.com, but not www_2.example.com
or my_example.com.


So, in order to help this educational process, can someone give a
short paragraph that explains the differences between host names and
domain names, why the allowed characterset is different between the
two and when you should use one or the other?



-wayne


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