Ok, then let's take a step back, perhaps not permanently, and say DNS resolution is only really useful for routers with more than just a single default external route. So DNS could be reduced to an inter-router only protocol, similar to BGP in some sense. I suppose one question is how do we discover non-existant hostnames but we have strong analogues to that at the ICMP level already, host unreachable etc, just another kind of error feedback. But I'll agree that begs some thought. As I said, the proposal was originally offered by me to a bunch of young "hackers" in Singapore for the purpose of stimulating discussion. -- -Barry Shein The World | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD | Dial-Up: US, PR, Canada Software Tool & Die | Public Access Internet | SINCE 1989 *oo*