3 ms·

> the .onion domain name is free! I mean, you’re technically correct, but isn’t this kind of like saying that the .local TLD is free of charge? It’s “free” bec

by hnarn 6y ago

> the .onion domain name is free! I mean, you’re technically correct, but isn’t this kind of like saying that the .local TLD is free of charge? It’s “free” because it’s not a part of the “normal” internet.

loa_in_ 6y ago
But .local aren't resolved by any public DNS server, so when outside your bubble you won't have them pointing where you expect while Tor names resolve whenever you can get connected to Tor Network
- hnarn 6y ago
  Yeah, my point was just that if your host name is not a part of any “normal” or public DNS resolution, the point of it being free is kind of moot.
swiley 6y ago
.local isn't part of a global namespace, it's part of a local namespace. Sure you don't get an interesting name but you do get one.
- oarsinsync 6y ago
  .local isn’t the best comparison to .onion .oarsinsync is probably a better comparison. It’s not explicitly scoped anywhere, and it works nicely in my oarsinsync bubble, much like .onion works nicely in the ToR bubble. In both cases, you need to connect using some kind of tunnelling protocol to connect into another network.
- hnarn 6y ago
  What I’m trying to say is that if you’re going to have to install additional software, or make additional configuration on the requesting node, it doesn’t really matter if it’s .local or .tor or whatever, because the only reason it works is because you did that extra work: and when you’re in that situation, it doesn’t really make sense to compare it to “paid” domains because the reason you pay for a domain is just that, you want it to work everywhere without additional configuration.
  - swiley 6y ago
    I think we're thinking of different use cases. For me, all my personal machines have TOR installed anyway and I mostly want public address for gluing things together or being able to access things remotely. It's definitely not usable for everything you normally use domain names for (like showing people the menu at a restaurant.) I will point out that you don't need to do any extra work to access web servers on TOR at least. I think cloudfront (and I know others) run a proxy that lets you access them with just a normal URL via a web browser. Most OSes need no extra configuration for .local.

by hnarn 6y ago

loa_in_ 6y ago

But .local aren't resolved by any public DNS server, so when outside your bubble you won't have them pointing where you expect while Tor names resolve whenever you can get connected to Tor Network

hnarn 6y ago
Yeah, my point was just that if your host name is not a part of any “normal” or public DNS resolution, the point of it being free is kind of moot.

swiley 6y ago

.local isn't part of a global namespace, it's part of a local namespace. Sure you don't get an interesting name but you do get one.

oarsinsync 6y ago
.local isn’t the best comparison to .onion .oarsinsync is probably a better comparison. It’s not explicitly scoped anywhere, and it works nicely in my oarsinsync bubble, much like .onion works nicely in the ToR bubble. In both cases, you need to connect using some kind of tunnelling protocol to connect into another network.
hnarn 6y ago
What I’m trying to say is that if you’re going to have to install additional software, or make additional configuration on the requesting node, it doesn’t really matter if it’s .local or .tor or whatever, because the only reason it works is because you did that extra work: and when you’re in that situation, it doesn’t really make sense to compare it to “paid” domains because the reason you pay for a domain is just that, you want it to work everywhere without additional configuration.
- swiley 6y ago
  I think we're thinking of different use cases. For me, all my personal machines have TOR installed anyway and I mostly want public address for gluing things together or being able to access things remotely. It's definitely not usable for everything you normally use domain names for (like showing people the menu at a restaurant.) I will point out that you don't need to do any extra work to access web servers on TOR at least. I think cloudfront (and I know others) run a proxy that lets you access them with just a normal URL via a web browser. Most OSes need no extra configuration for .local.