Were A record domain names ever limited to 23 characters?

Fri Oct 7 23:34:45 UTC 2011

I posted a story about a domain that was one character too long on Google+.
A few old-school Disney Online people remembered it enough to comment/+1 it,
and agreed that it did happen. This event has bothered me for years, because
everyone seemed to think long names were always possible. I kept thinking I
imagined the whole thing, but it did happen after all.
Too funny.

https://plus.google.com/114144561369449816821/posts/MvZYRvGmH5a
or
http://goo.gl/WHEP3
if you prefer a shortened url.
--steve

On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 11:28, Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu> wrote:

> On Friday, September 30, 2011 05:54:38 PM steve pirk [egrep] wrote:
> > I seem to recollect back the 1999 or 2000 times that I was unable to
> > register a domain name that was 24 characters long. Shortly after that, I
> > heard that the character limit had been increased to like 128 characters,
> > and we were able to register the name.
> >
> > Can anyone offer some input, or is this a memory of a bad dream?
> > ;-]
>
> At least as of 2008, you could go 45 characters, not counting the TLD:
> ++++++++++++++++++
> $ whois pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com
> [Querying whois.verisign-grs.com]
> [Redirected to whois.above.com]
> [Querying whois.above.com]
> [whois.above.com]
> The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
> Registrars.Registration Service Provided By: ABOVE.COM, Pty. Ltd.
> Contact: +613.95897946
>
>    Domain Name: PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS.COM
>
>    Registrant:
>        Above.com Domain Privacy
>        8 East concourse
>        Beaumaris
>        VIC
>        3193
>        AU
>        pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com at privacy.above.com
>        Tel. +61.395897946
>        Fax.
>
>    Creation date: 2008-02-20
>    Expiration Date: 2012-02-20
> ...
> $ ping www.pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com
> PING www.pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com (69.43.161.151)
> 56(84) bytes of data.
> 64 bytes from 69.43.161.151: icmp_req=1 ttl=50 time=85.9 ms
> 64 bytes from 69.43.161.151: icmp_req=3 ttl=50 time=85.7 ms
> 64 bytes from 69.43.161.151: icmp_req=4 ttl=50 time=85.8 ms
> 64 bytes from 69.43.161.151: icmp_req=5 ttl=50 time=85.6 ms
> ^C
> --- www.pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com ping statistics
> ---
> 5 packets transmitted, 4 received, 20% packet loss, time 4002ms
> rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 85.618/85.815/85.984/0.132 ms
> +++++++++++++++++++++
>
> FWIW.
>
>

-- 
steve pirk
refiamerica.org
"father... the sleeper has awakened..." paul atreides - dune
kexp.org member august '09