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by kingcharles 1688 days ago
While this would work, Internic would need to share the same HOSTS file. I don't remember a global shared HOSTS like that.

When Windows 95 came out I created an online shared cdplayer.ini where everyone added their own track info and we intended to create a file that had info for every CD in the world (this was before CDDB was invented). Sadly the project self-destructed because W95 had a hard 64Kb limit on .ini files.
2 comments
marcus0x62 1688 days ago
No, there was a global hosts file prior to DNS — see RFCs 811[1] and 953[2].

[1] — https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc811 [2] - https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc953

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kingcharles 1687 days ago
TIL the Internet once ran on a shared text file. "This data base is an extension of the old ARPANET Hosts.txt file, and is being maintained by the NIC to provide continuity during the transition and expansion to the internet environment."
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LeoPanthera 1688 days ago
This is exactly how CDDB got started, except it was a database file for xmcd.
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