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Oldest Domain Names

domainholdings.com

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Re: Oldest Domain Names

#61

Post by bandy »

jobigoud wrote: post #13
bandy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, domain names have always been case-insensitive, just like e-mail addresses.

E-mail addresses are case sensitive.

RFC 822 calls for the "local-part" to be case-preserved. It also specifies that the special address, "Postmaster", must be deliverable with any combination of case used. I do see, however, that RFC 5321 not only reinforces the idea that the case of the "local-part" must be preserved, but it explicitly declares that "smith" and "Smith" may very well be different recipient mailboxes, which is brain-damaged, given that those are very often typed in by fallible humans.

Re: Oldest Domain Names

#62

Post by bandy »

slaven wrote: post #36
kahirsch wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theoretically, this could be true. Are there any email systems that are actually case-sensitive?

Yes, a lot of older systems (non-Unix) were case sensitive.

I'm going to guess Notes was one of them, but do you have any specific examples? (Unix™-derived e-mail systems being case-insensitive (although, I'd wager that /bin/mail was case-sensitive back in 7th Edition) is obvious, and I just checked our Exchange here on campus and it, too, cares not about the case of my recipient address.)

Re: Oldest Domain Names

#64

Post by nasalgoat »

eli wrote: post #39
bradleyjg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because Jon Postal batched up requests and entered them all at the same time, rather than entering them as soon as the requests came in.

If I recall you used to have to fax a form in on company letterhead to confirm your domain registration.

You had to have an actual server providing services for that domain as well - and back then, that meant at least one physical machine per domain.

Re: Oldest Domain Names

#65

Post by nasalgoat »

creeble wrote: post #17
sionronin wrote: post #6

What was registering a domain name like in 1986-87?

They were free, and only took a letter (not email...) to the internic. I remember when we registered Autodesk.com, not much impact at the time because we didn't have a connection to the 'net yet. My email was still {gatech,uunet,MIT}!acad!eric.

I registered one via a phone call in 1994. It was just one guy doing them all.
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