ARPA Host Name Server Protocol

The ARPA Host Name Server Protocol (NAMESERVER)^[1] is an obsolete network protocol used in translating a host name to an Internet address. IANA Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 42 for NAMESERVER; this port is more commonly used by the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) on Microsoft operating systems.

Application

The NAMESERVER protocol is used by the DARPA Trivial Name Server, a server process called tnamed that is provided in some implementations of UNIX.^[2][3][4]

Replacement

Support for the NAMESERVER protocol has been deprecated, and may not be available in the latest implementations of all UNIX operating systems.^[5] The Domain Name System (DNS) has replaced the ARPA Host Name Server Protocol and the DARPA Trivial Name Server.

See also

• List of TCP and UDP port numbers
• List of Unix operating systems

References

1. OFFICIAL INTERNET PROTOCOLS (see "IEN 116" at top of page 31)
2. DARPA Trivial Name Server NeXT NEXTSTEP documentation
3. DARPA Trivial Name Server Sun Solaris documentation^{[permanent dead link‍]}
4. Trivial Name Server SCO UnixWare documentation Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
5. Somewhat incomplete list of UNIX operating systems that either support or do not support the DARPA Trivial Name Server (tnetd)

External links

• IEN 116 Internet Name Server
• Development of the domain name system