Null realms and servers

[Derek Atkins]

Nicolas Williams <Nicolas.Williams at sun.com> writes:

>  - I've convinced Sam that the fallback host2realm algorithm that I
>    described, in conjunction with referrals, will be very useful.
>
>    Specifically the algorithm we propose allows zero-configuration
>    clients to prosper in any environment that has the following
>    characteristics:
>
>     - Realm names correspond to DNS domain names, but without
>       necessarily having a sub-realm for every sub-domain.  E.g.,
>
>       .sun.com = SUN.COM
>       .east.sun.com = SUN.COM
>       .central.sun.com = SUN.COM

How do you determine the base domain for a realm hierarchy?
E.g. what kind of algorithm do you use to decide whether
w.x.y.z maps to Y.Z or X.Y.Z?  For example, how would you
handle myhost.oxford.ac.uk?  Or even myhost.mydept.oxford.ac.uk?
Obviously you wouldn't want this to map to domain AC.UK.

How do you algorithmically differentiate between foo.oxford.ac.uk
and foo.east.sun.com?

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available