Were A record domain names ever limited to 23 characters?

Sat Oct 8 02:43:29 UTC 2011

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joe Hamelin" <joe at nethead.com>

> Subject: Re: Were A record domain names ever limited to 23 characters?
> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 7:30 PM, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> > "3com.com"
> 
> I recall that 3M was originally mmm.com because they wouldn't allow a
> number to start a domain.
> 
> /me runs whois mmm.com
> 
> Yep, Created on..............: 1988-10-31.
> 
> but wait, 3m.com Created on..............: 1988-05-27.
> 
> So was the digit as first octet a limitation with some OS or software
> (BIND, sendmail, gopher?) or do I have brain-fade?

I would have bet good green Murrican Money that RFC 1034/5 required that it 
not start with a number, but I'll have to go look.  No, I seem to remember 
pretty clearly it was administrative.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com         2000 Land Rover DII
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