[wildcard-comments] Wildcards in TLDs

[Philip Peake <philip@xxxxxxxxx>]

The use of wildcards in DNS has been a point of discussion for many years. The general consensus has been that except in very limited circumstances (MX records for example) they are a bad idea, mainly because the uses to which DNS results are put are varied and change over time. It is impossible to predict the effect on all applications which do, or may use DNS, and certainly to predict effects on as yet un-thought of applications.

In the particular instance which has initiated this discussion, there are a number of points that I would like to make:

• The introduction of these wildcards has eliminated a documented and widely used  feature of DNS: the ability to determine based upon the result of a DNS lookup if a given domain name is valid or not. To completely override this basic functionality is unacceptable.
  
  
• The changes were made with virtually no consultation or exploration of the impact among the user population. Ther appears to have been a very narrow view taken of what DNS is used for. it is actually used for many more applications than web browsing.
  
  
• The changes were made by an organization entrusted with the day to day operation of these domains on behalf of the user population worldwide. The changed made were not a (perhaps misguided) attempt to enhance the service for those users, but a blatent attempt to exploit the trusted poition for the financial gain of the company. If, as Verisign claim, this is a much needed improvement to DNS, they can hardly argue that the IP address returned  should favor all commercial search engines equally, perhaps giving Verisign's address one week, Google the next, Yahoo the next ... etc.
  
  
• This is not the first time that Verisign has abused its position of being the maintainer of the TLD servers for these domains. Now is the time to seriously consider relieving Verisign of that role and passing it to non-commercial organizations, or at the very least, organizations who are contractually forbidden from having any role in registration of domains.
  
  
• The response of ICANN has been much too weak. ICANN needs to play the role it is intended to.
  
  
• These wildcards should be removed immediately.
  

Philip Peake
Internet Software and Architecture consultant