Subject: Re: RFC 2181: What is the maximum length of a domain name?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 09:07:00 +1000

255 refers to the uncompressed wire representation.  All
	other maximums are derived from that.  e.g. space required
	to hold a ascii encoded arbitary domain name with final
	period null terminated.  4*250 (label characters) + 4
	(periods) + 1 (null)

	Hostnames also have a maximum length of 255.  There are
	some hostnames that you cannot encode in the DNS as they
	are too long to fit the wire representation.  Hostnames do
	not have a trailing dot.  The maximum length hostname that
	can be stored in the DNS is 253 (250 label characters and
	3 period) characters.

--
Mark Andrews, Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: [email-masked]

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