3 ms·
iirc the hosts file was the primary DNS at the time, and would sync every 24 hours from a master hosts file online. Thus not needing TLDs to resolve hostnames.
by rshannon3 5y ago
iirc the hosts file was the primary DNS at the time, and would sync every 24 hours from a master hosts file online. Thus not needing TLDs to resolve hostnames.
- kingcharles 5y agoWhile this would work, Internic would need to share the same HOSTS file. I don't remember a global shared HOSTS like that. When Windows 95 came out I created an online shared cdplayer.ini where everyone added their own track info and we intended to create a file that had info for every CD in the world (this was before CDDB was invented). Sadly the project self-destructed because W95 had a hard 64Kb limit on .ini files.
- LeoPanthera 5y agoThis is exactly how CDDB got started, except it was a database file for xmcd.
- marcus0x62 5y agoNo, there was a global hosts file prior to DNS — see RFCs 811[1] and 953[2]. [1] — https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc811 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc811 [2] - https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc953 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc953
- kingcharles 5y agoTIL the Internet once ran on a shared text file. "This data base is an extension of the old ARPANET Hosts.txt file, and is being maintained by the NIC to provide continuity during the transition and expansion to the internet environment."