Re: proposed (minor) changes in squid

On Wed, 1 Oct 1997, Anthony Baxter wrote:

> > >1) Accept hostnames with '_'
> > I don't believe this is a good idea. Resolver libraries and nameservers
> > alike are moving to enforcing this, as do many non-Unix operating systems.

Agreed.

> Sure, but you should notify the people responsible for the domain, not
> the end users trying to talk to that domain.

How do you know that such domains/hosts exist if Squid (any software for
that matter) is silently passing requests through?

Why should cache admins have to keep checking for mistakes made by
(perhaps well-meaning but otherwise ill-informed and/or inexperienced)
other admins?

> If your users want to deal with a system that (god forbid) has an _ in
> it's hostname, and their system will allow it, then good for them. If
> they say 'why can I access it directly, but not through squid?' no
> matter what you say, they're going to be thinking "squid is busted".

If use of Squid is optional for your organisation then who cares? Users
who feel sufficiently strongly about it will bypass Squid and that's that.
If they feel that performance was better when they were using Squid, then
they'll switch back. The more adventurous may even set "No Proxy" for
just the offending site.

Most users, however, don't know what the heck a "proxy" is so once it's
set they'll forget about it and just accept the error Squid reports (okay
they'll be annoyed, but no more annoyed than when they follow a broken
link from a search engine).

If use of Squid for your organisation is mandatory and enforced, then
again who cares? Users won't be able to bypass it to argue "it works
without Squid".

Standards.. bwah, who needs 'em anyway. Let's just ask Microsoft what we
should be doing.. ;-)

> Let the resolver libraries deal with it, and let squid be more relaxed
> about it.

And what do you do when the resolver on your Squid server refuses the
character? What's the point in "breaking" one piece of software only to
accept the restriction by another piece of software in the chain?

This isn't old news, BTW. How many commercial ISPs have yet modified
Squid to accept the underscore character (serious question)?

Cheers..

dave
Received on Wed Oct 01 1997 - 04:10:23 MDT