[Mimedefang] OT: www. and "lazy users" (was Re: DNS and MX records)

[Jeff Rife]

On 15 May 2006 at 10:41, Kelson wrote:

> Really, the only reason websites tend to be named www.example.com these
> days is tradition.

Well, yes.  That's the "tradition" for the *default* website for a 
domain.  Other websites at that domain may have different hostnames.  
Almost every major domain uses this structure.

> The only real use for the www. prefix is as a visual cue indicating that
> the address refers to a website.

No, it's because it's not "store.domain.tld" (where you buy stuff from 
the company) or "support.domain.tld" (where they provide support info), 
etc.

> As sysadmins, our jobs are to make things work smoothly for the end
> users.  Sometimes that involves educating them ("Don't open unexpected
> attachments!")  Sometimes that involves adjusting the system to
> make it easier to use (filter out known viruses and spam.)  This seems
> like a clear-cut case of the latter.

Yes, for lazy users, we sometimes allow them to not type "www" because 
that has historically been the hostname for the default website.  But 
there are many domains out there where I do *not* go to the default 
website to start...I'll type "support.domain.tld" because that's what I 
want.


--
Jeff Rife | "I don't have to be Ray Liotta: movie star, 
          |  anymore.  I can be Ray Liotta: Maya's boyfriend. 
          |  All I want to do is regular, boring, ordinary 
          |  couple things." 
          | "Then you, sir, have hit the soul-mate lottery." 
          |         -- Ray Liotta and Nina Van Horn, "Just Shoot Me"