That may sound silly, but there's a merit in the idea that domain names can successfully replace the SNMP's object IDs. SNMP and DNS then become the same protocol. In fact, all protocols requiring exchange of some request and getting some reply from a uniquely named object can be made a particular case of a generic protocol. There's no reason for Internet to be a hodge-podge of specialized kludges. In most cases, it only takes an ability for DNS to "hand off" the continuation of name resolution to application programs. See -- i don't think everything Plan 9-ish is pure crap. --vadim From: John Curran <jcurran@bbnplanet.com> No... we're going to mandate OID-style router names for the world's Internet providers: <isoc-tree>.<internet-infrastructure branch>. <iso country code>.<city ordinal>.<provider #>. <facility #>.<rack #>.<shelf #>.<router ordinal> Great fun to watch (it could be happening this way in the alternate universe next door.) ;-) /John