On Thu, 22 Aug 1996 10:27:43 CDT Chris Barnes said: >I have a user that is complaining because LSMPT won't accept his node >name. It's in the form: blah_blah.node.domain > >Is the "_" an illegal character? If so, does anyone have the RFC >reference I can give him (he'll want proof). Here are the relevant sections of RFC's describing host names: RFC 952 ASSUMPTIONS 1. A "name" (Net, Host, Gateway, or Domain name) is a text string up to 24 characters drawn from the alphabet (A-Z), digits (0-9), minus sign (-), and period (.). Note that periods are only allowed when they serve to delimit components of "domain style names". (See RFC-921, "Domain Name System Implementation Schedule", for background). No blank or space characters are permitted as part of a name. No distinction is made between upper and lower case. The first character must be an alpha character. The last character must not be a minus sign or period. A host which serves as a GATEWAY should have "-GATEWAY" or "-GW" as part of its name. Hosts which do not serve as Internet gateways should not use "-GATEWAY" and "-GW" as part of their names. A host which is a TAC should have "-TAC" as the last part of its host name, if it is a DoD host. Single character names or nicknames are not allowed. RFC 1123 2.1 Host Names and Numbers The syntax of a legal Internet host name was specified in RFC-952 {DNS:4}. One aspect of host name syntax is hereby changed: the restriction on the first character is relaxed to allow either a letter or a digit. Host software MUST support this more liberal syntax. Host software MUST handle host names of up to 63 characters and SHOULD handle host names of up to 255 characters. In short, "_" is an invalid character in a host name. Regards, John Hammond