CNAME at apex - a website publisher perspective
draft-york-dnsop-cname-at-apex-publisher-view-01

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DNSOP Working Group                                              D. York
Internet-Draft                                          Internet Society
Intended status: Informational                         November 06, 2018
Expires: May 10, 2019

            CNAME at apex - a website publisher perspective
            draft-york-dnsop-cname-at-apex-publisher-view-01

Abstract

   There has been a large amount of discussion about the "CNAME at apex"
   issue within the DNSOP Working Group.  This draft provides the
   perspective of one publisher of multiple websites about why CNAME-
   like functionality is desirable at the apex of a domain zone.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 10, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  The Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Note  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  CNAME works for subdomains  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  CNAME at apex does not work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Proprietary solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     5.1.  Proprietary lockin  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     5.2.  Restriction on using multiple CDNs  . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Existing and proposed solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  Author opinion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  Past discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   9.  Conventions and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   12. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     12.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     12.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   From the early days of the Web, publishers of websites generally
   operated their main public website using the "www" subdomain, as in
   "www.example.com".

   In recent years many organizations have moved to dropping the "www"
   and referring to their main website by simply the domain name, as in
   "example.com".  There are numerous reasons for this change, including
   the simplicity of saying or writing the name and also smaller address
   bars on mobile browsers.  If you are designing a large advertisement
   to display in, say, an airport hallway, you can make the domain name
   address larger and more visibile if you simply use "example.com" and
   drop the "www".  Additionally, some web browsers are no longer
   showing the full URL (or even any of the URL) and so the "www" is no
   longer visible.

   Regardless of the reasons, the fact is that many website publishers
   and marketing/communications teams are moving to using only the
   domain name without the "www" or other subdomains to reference their
   public website.

   The expectations from the marketing / communications teams are that:

   1.  users will be able to simply enter "example.com" into their
       browser; and

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