6 ms·

It is beyond me to understand how the decision making and maintaining process worked in this case but it makes me wonder why there is no such thing as a TLD for

by mercora 10y ago

It is beyond me to understand how the decision making and maintaining process worked in this case but it makes me wonder why there is no such thing as a TLD for private use. Analogue to private IP address space. Now that TLD can pop up arbitrarily it would be quite useful to have something like that. Maybe .local could already be used for that purpose?!

throwaway7767 10y ago
How would that work? It's an internet connected service that devices from all over the internet are connecting to. They could hardcode the servers IP, but then they can't ever move their infrastructure (horrible idea). So they do the reasonable thing and put the name in DNS. Where do you imagine the lookup for this .local name being directed, and how will it end up at TP-Link's current management server?
- mercora 10y ago
  I made the assumption that the query for the domain is statically resolved by the local resolver of the device. I also do not know anything about the configuration of these devices, i just assumed it is just a convenient way to access the local web interface for configuration of the device. If there really is a centralized service on the internet needed to configure the device it would be somewhat problematic to set these devices up or not?
  - kevinoconnor7 10y ago
    You were correct, I have a TP-Link router: $ nslookup tplinklogin.net Server: 192.168.1.1 Address: 192.168.1.1#53 Non-authoritative answer: Name: tplinklogin.net Address: 192.168.1.1 --- An external request: $ nslookup tplinklogin.net Server: 2001:4860:4860::8844 Address: 2001:4860:4860::8844#53 Non-authoritative answer: Name: tplinklogin.net Address: 103.224.212.249
- kevinoconnor7 10y ago
  I'm not sure I understand you. TP Link givens the domains an A record using the DNS server running on their routers by default. Publicly it probably either had a default record of 192.168.1.1 or it just didn't have one at all. Either way, the domain only makes sense locally. This is also why the domains still work even though they no longer own them. Therefore, if there were a local TLD, this would be the proper use-case for it.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    If that's how it would work, they wouldn't need to coordinate with anyone else. Just use "login.tplink". Since it's quite unlikely that anyone else would use that TLD, there wouldn't be a problem.
    - basch 10y ago
      people would type in login .tplink .com people would type login tplink into google/bing from a usability standpoint this solution wouldnt work.
      - jessaustin 10y ago
        If that's a problem, a simple 301 is the answer.
        basch 10y ago
        how does a 301 fix a person not understanding how to type a url into the address bar? plenty of people dont understand the difference between searching and directly calling a website.
        jessaustin 10y ago
        The goalposts, they are a-movin... people would type in login .tplink .com https://www.google.com/search?q=login+.tplink+.com https://www.google.com/search?q=login+.tplink+.com then 301 people would type login tplink into google/bing https://www.google.com/search?q=login+tplink https://www.google.com/search?q=login+tplink then 301 This serious problem you describe, of cavemen and preschoolers who don't know about URLs, has been solved now for a long time. 301 is part of that solution. The tp-link.com site is perfectly capable of examining Referer and using that information to help tplink users. However, since we've already established upthread that the router controls everything about the online experience, it would be no problem redirect the first navigation through an unconfigured router to a "wizard" page.
WorldMaker 10y ago
Hopefully as Windows 10's mDNS implementation stabilizes and becomes more reliable we might finally see cross-platform usage for .local, and devices such as routers could advertise .local names in documentation. (I've done some dabbling in web applications intended for internet-disconnected networks with somewhat unreliable local DNS servers, such as cruise ship networks, and .local if it worked reliably enough across platforms would probably help a lot instead of trying to pass around IP addresses.)

by mercora 10y ago

throwaway7767 10y ago

How would that work? It's an internet connected service that devices from all over the internet are connecting to. They could hardcode the servers IP, but then they can't ever move their infrastructure (horrible idea). So they do the reasonable thing and put the name in DNS. Where do you imagine the lookup for this .local name being directed, and how will it end up at TP-Link's current management server?

mercora 10y ago
I made the assumption that the query for the domain is statically resolved by the local resolver of the device. I also do not know anything about the configuration of these devices, i just assumed it is just a convenient way to access the local web interface for configuration of the device. If there really is a centralized service on the internet needed to configure the device it would be somewhat problematic to set these devices up or not?
- kevinoconnor7 10y ago
  You were correct, I have a TP-Link router: $ nslookup tplinklogin.net Server: 192.168.1.1 Address: 192.168.1.1#53 Non-authoritative answer: Name: tplinklogin.net Address: 192.168.1.1 --- An external request: $ nslookup tplinklogin.net Server: 2001:4860:4860::8844 Address: 2001:4860:4860::8844#53 Non-authoritative answer: Name: tplinklogin.net Address: 103.224.212.249
kevinoconnor7 10y ago
I'm not sure I understand you. TP Link givens the domains an A record using the DNS server running on their routers by default. Publicly it probably either had a default record of 192.168.1.1 or it just didn't have one at all. Either way, the domain only makes sense locally. This is also why the domains still work even though they no longer own them. Therefore, if there were a local TLD, this would be the proper use-case for it.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  If that's how it would work, they wouldn't need to coordinate with anyone else. Just use "login.tplink". Since it's quite unlikely that anyone else would use that TLD, there wouldn't be a problem.
  - basch 10y ago
    people would type in login .tplink .com people would type login tplink into google/bing from a usability standpoint this solution wouldnt work.
    - jessaustin 10y ago
      If that's a problem, a simple 301 is the answer.
      - basch 10y ago
        how does a 301 fix a person not understanding how to type a url into the address bar? plenty of people dont understand the difference between searching and directly calling a website.
        jessaustin 10y ago
        The goalposts, they are a-movin... people would type in login .tplink .com https://www.google.com/search?q=login+.tplink+.com https://www.google.com/search?q=login+.tplink+.com then 301 people would type login tplink into google/bing https://www.google.com/search?q=login+tplink https://www.google.com/search?q=login+tplink then 301 This serious problem you describe, of cavemen and preschoolers who don't know about URLs, has been solved now for a long time. 301 is part of that solution. The tp-link.com site is perfectly capable of examining Referer and using that information to help tplink users. However, since we've already established upthread that the router controls everything about the online experience, it would be no problem redirect the first navigation through an unconfigured router to a "wizard" page.

WorldMaker 10y ago

Hopefully as Windows 10's mDNS implementation stabilizes and becomes more reliable we might finally see cross-platform usage for .local, and devices such as routers could advertise .local names in documentation. (I've done some dabbling in web applications intended for internet-disconnected networks with somewhat unreliable local DNS servers, such as cruise ship networks, and .local if it worked reliably enough across platforms would probably help a lot instead of trying to pass around IP addresses.)