FotFM: The Domain Name System (DNS)

02007-05-28T17:39:17+00:00

Once upon a time, back in the ancient history of the Internet–before the 1990s–domain names were carefully controlled and regulated. A single organization controlled each top level domain. If you wanted a domain name, you had to meet their requirements. Often the policies enforced were quite picky. If you wanted a .uk domain name, you were required to actually be in the UK, for example. If you wanted a .org domain, you were required to be a non-profit organization.

Bringing clarity

02005-03-23T18:00:00+00:00

As part of my mission to bring clarity to the world, let me explain the so-called “302 exploit” you may have heard scare stories about. Background HTTP, the protocol used to serve web pages, has two numeric codes that can be returned by the web server to direct the client (browser) to a new URL: 301 and 302. A 301 redirection means “The page you requested has moved permanently. Please go to the new address I am providing you with, and update your bookmarks.