Paul Mockapetris On The Future of DNS

penciling_in writes "In a CircleID article called Letting DNS Loose, Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of DNS and Chief Scientist and Chairman of Nominum, gives a good indication of what is to be expected in the upcoming years when it comes to data riding on DNS: "RFID tags, UPC codes, International characters in email addresses and host names, and a variety of other identifiers could all go into DNS, and folks have occasionally proposed doing just that. It's really just a question of figuring out how to use the DNS -- it's ready to carry arbitrary identifiers." According to Paul, there are 40 or so data types to be added to DNS: "In fact the whole ENUM scheme is built out of classical DNS technology, and NAPTR is really just the latest data type to be added to the DNS. NAPTR is also just an extension of SRV, which was an extension of MX, which are DNS data types that Active Directory uses to start itself and the Internet uses to route each piece of mail." Paul also clarifies the recent BBC story previously discussed here on Slashdot."

Comments

his motives are?

[mcguyver]

In the 90s Paul tried to commercialize DNS by creating a server that would compete with other free DNS servers. We ended up writing a DNS server that was scaleable, slower and subscription based. Of course no one bought the software, the project failed and Paul 'willfully' left the company. It seemed like he was more interested in his job title and being known as 'the father of DNS' than ensuring the quality of the project. To see him take part in choosing the future of DNS make me worry.