TCP/IP host name resolution for machines on several domains

[54] TCP/IP HOST NAME RESOLUTION FOR MACHINES ON SEVERAL DOMAINS

[75] Inventor: John Ryan McGarvey, Apex, N.C.

[73] Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation. Armonk. N.Y.

[21] Appl. No.: 574*488

[22] Filed: Dec 19, 1995

[51] Int. CI.6 H04L 12/26

[52] U.S. CI 370/254; 370/475; 395/20079

[58] Field of Search 370/254-258.

370/392. 475; 395/200.11. 20079

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,853,843 8/1989 Ecklund 364/200

4,893,307 1/1990 McKay et al 370/466

5,021,942 6/1991 Watson et al 364/200

5,142,622 8/1992 Owens 395/200

5,617,540 4/1997 Civanlar et al 395/200.11

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

■Domain Names—Concepts and FacilitiesB by P. Mockapetris. IBM RFC1034, Nov.. 1987; available on Internet World Wide Web at FTP address nic.ddn.mil or nisc.junc.net.

Primary Examiner—Melvin Marcelo

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Jeanine S. Ray-Yarletts

[57] ABSTRACT

This invention deals with an enhancement to the name resolution capabilities of existing TCP/IP networks. More specifically, it allows a host which is connected to a private network to be located through a connection to a different private network or a public network, such as the internet. This is achieved by allowing the host to be configured with more than one primary domain name server. This can be done using existing TCP/IP communications protocol and does not require a change to any code outside of the host. The host can also define one or more alternate domain name servers for each of the primary domain name servers. The definition of multiple primary and secondary domain name servers for each host allows the name of the host to be located, without a degradation in performance, if it is located or defined in any of the primary domain name servers.

10 Claims, 3 Drawing Sheets