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IPv4 is for machines. IP addresses were never intended for humans, which is why domain names exist.
by dpark 8y ago
IPv4 is for machines. IP addresses were never intended for humans, which is why domain names exist.
- Pxtl 8y agoExcept that setting up domain names for devices in your network is out of reach for most humans, while IP addresses are trivial. My cheap router that I have to reboot nightly lets me bind an ipv4 address to every device on the network so I have known address for everything. There is no comparable functionality for a domain name, or a subdomain or whatever. If my ISP offered free dyndns (and there was a well-adopted global standard for the service), and I could assign subdomains for each of my devices, then I could have real names for everything. However, no consumer-level router supports that.
- rleigh 8y agoMost common routers and systems will automatically register and resolve names automatically on the local network. Plus there's zeroconf on top of that. You don't need to manually edit bind zone files for your local network unless you really want to.
- Pxtl 8y agoI have literally never ever seen a cheap consumer router that did anything "automatically" successfully other than run DHCP and provide access from the LAN to the WAN.
- rleigh 8y agoThe last two I've used over the last decade have automatically done this. Every machine requesting a DHCP lease is assigned "$host.lan" in the DNS service on the router, where "lan" is a default but configurable domain name. But even if you don't have this, then zeroconf/avahi/equivalent should be giving you "$host.local".
- mdaniel 8y ago> If my ISP offered free dyndns I am about 80% certain that in the time it took you to write this comment you could have bought a domain name, used the registrar's web-gui to input your now static IP addresses, and had a perfectly functioning DNS setup for your home. Or, if the free DDNS is the most important to you, OpenWRT appears to natively support quite an extensive list: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/ddns/client https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/ddns/client
- Pxtl 8y agoI have a domain name. Setting up subdomains and binding it to addresses is non-trivial. I have to figure out all the business of anames and MX records and how to set up a subdomain. And considering that routers issue ipv4 addresses automatically, offer user-friendly GUIs for binding addresses to devices and forwarding ports, it's not really comparable is it?
- dpark 8y agoYou are not comparing apples to apples here. You’re talking about setting up MX records vs memorizing an IPv4 address. There is no way that pxtl@random-IPv4-address is how you’re handling your email. If you can run a server securely on the public internet, you can set up a domain name. To pretend otherwise is a little absurd. Frankly if you can’t set up a domain properly in DNS, you probably can’t successfully manage to forward a port to your server anyway.
- zamadatix 8y agoYour cheap home router that lets you assign private IP addresses to everything could just as well be a cheap home router that serves DNS using a private TLD. Things like Chromecast already do this for you automagically via mDNS and the .local TLD.
- geofft 8y agoFWIW my consumer router offers free dynamic DNS for my public IP under asuscomm.com. I've had the router since January 2014 and it still works. Most consumer routers I've seen offer automatic private DNS based on the DHCP option for registering a hostname.