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Propagating Server's Hostname
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<Raphael_Manfredi@pobox.com>
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Because most ISP today offer dynamic IP to their customers, the lifetime of
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Gnutella's server IP addresses is short (around 24 hours).
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This is counter-productive for the file-serving features of Gnutella, as
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the queued downloads and the download mesh only record the IP addresses of
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When users have some kind of dynamic DNS setup, it is possible for them
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to provide a hostname that can be looked up through the DNS to yield
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the corresponding IP address.
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This proposal documents what is implemented in gtk-gnutella today (26/10/2003).
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2. HOSTNAME CONFIGURATION
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The GUI offers an optional configuration for a hostname. When supplied,
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this hostname will be transmitted in the query hits generated by the host
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and in the HTTP headers of the server's replies for downloaders to peruse.
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It is NOT beeing used in the mesh entries yet. Servent authors are encouraged
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to update their code to allow hostnames to be given as alternate locations,
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in X-Gnutella-Alternate-Location or in X-Alt headers. For backward
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compatibility, gtk-gnutella does not use the optionally configured hostname
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in those headers and sticks to supplying the node's IP address only (as
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3. HTTP HOSTNAME PROPAGATION
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A Gnutella node serving files and knowing its hostname will tell uploaders
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about it via the X-Hostname header, provided it is not firewalled:
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X-Hostname: gnutella.example.com
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It is up to the uploader to interpret this header. The header MAY not
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be always present in the server's replies, even though the hostname is
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known, to save bandwidth. In particular, follow-up HTTP/1.1 replies
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SHOULD NOT contain it.
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4. QUERY HIT HOSTNAME PROPAGATION
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A Gnutella node replying to queries, knowing its hostname and not firewalled
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SHOULD include its hostname in the trailer of its query hits, using the
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"HNAME" GGEP extension.
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This extension is defined as:
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Where: Query Hit (trailer)
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Date: Sun Oct 26 15:25:36 MET 2003
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The "HNAME" extension carries the hostname of the Gnutella server, for
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instance "gnutella.example.com". The payload does not include the
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trailing NUL character at the end of the string.
added
removed
doc/gnutella/hostname
