[sitefinder-tech-discuss] Technical issues encountered by a k12 site

[Jeremy_Powell@sbcss.k12.ca.us]

We encountered 2 technical issues as a result of the wild card
in the .COM and .NET TLDs.

1) Our spam filter utilizes an NXDOMAIN response to recognize
non-existent domains and therefore does not allow mail from
them.  Some spam is sent this way.  Whois is not an acceptable
replacement for this because it is massively inaccurate.
2) Microsoft name resolution on newer operatin systems goes
through the stages of file, DNS, NetBIOS.  For a school district
that has implemented a Windows domain that does not exist in DNS
and is therefore resolved in the NetBIOS stage, 
the wildcard causes resolution of names to cease at the
DNS stage because that stage never returns the expected NXDOMAIN.
Implementation of a local DNS for the non-existent domain will
resolve this.

In short, the problem is not with what site finder was intended
to do, but with its unintended interaction with past product
implementation decisions by other companies.  I don't see any i
ssues with the wild card implementation for web clients, but others may.

Jeremy Powell
San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools


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Date Sent (d/m/yy): 7/10/2003  -  Sender: Jeremy_Powell@sbcss.k12.ca.us