Is it April the first today...or am I in a parallel universe [one where they allow the "_" in domain names?

Support for the underscore character in a DNS host name is somewhat controversial; from what I understand is, the underscore will screw up your DNS settings -- Wikipedia has some good info on this shown here and a few other sources shown below.

RFC 1033 specifies that the underscore character is supported, however this document was never released as an Internet Standard and as such does not constitute a design specification.  The strict definition in RFC 1035 of valid characters does not allow for the underscore character to be present, however it is noted that adherence to the naming rules in this RFC are voluntary.  It's generally recommended that DNS host names are assigned according to RFC 1035.

wow...I had no idea it was even, in theroy, possible.

I just went to 4 big domain registrars...including Network solutions and none will allow registration of a domain with "_" in it.

I'm guessing the the article author really meant underscores in the URL [the stem or filename] rather than the domain name.

My apology. I accidentally published the unedited version of this article. No excuse…just a sorry. The correct version is now in place. http://www.site-reference.com/articles/ … Names.html


Nic

LOL Nic - I read that article earlier and was scratching my head...