The article clarifies that the maximum DNS name length is 255 octets, not characters, explaining the binary label-based encoding format defined in RFC 1035. It resolves a common confusion where names appearing under the character limit are rejected due to octet encoding overhead from length prefixes and root termination.
Background
DNS (Domain Name System) is a core internet infrastructure protocol that resolves domain names to IP addresses. RFC 1035 remains the foundational specification for DNS message formats and encoding.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- Sep 1, 2026 at 01:16 AM
- Score
- 6.0 / 10