216603 - SMTP Servers with "_" in server name are rejected as invalid

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 89945

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[Jon Ort]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030728 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030728 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1

We are using a local SMPTP server, and the IP address is resolved using WINS.
The server name is in the form CORP_SMTP_SERVER which does resolve correctly. 
The SMTP server dialog refuses to allow this server name though it will allow
CORPSMTPSERVER or CORPSMTPSERVERXXX.  This implies to me that the underscore is
being considered an invalid character in all cases, which it isn't.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Change SMTP server name to anything with an underscore character
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
Invalid server name dialog.  Refusal to accept change.

Expected Results:  
Allowed the server name to have been entered and accepted.

Comment 1

[Ben Strawson]

According to RFC1034 section 3.5, underscore is not a valid character.

"The labels must follow the rules for ARPANET host names.  They must
start with a letter, end with a letter or digit, and have as interior
characters only letters, digits, and hyphen.  There are also some
restrictions on the length.  Labels must be 63 characters or less."

Comment 2

[Jon Ort]

Yes, that is true (ARPANET Host name restrictions).  Unfortunately we have that
ugly Windows issue again where this software may not be used within a system
that enforces the same set of rules.  Since WINS resolution allows these
characters, and this software is often also used in within a WINS system, it
might be wise to allow this leeway.  Especially since there seems to be no other
reason to be overly agressive with the initial validation of the data.

Comment 3

[Malte Rücker (mbr)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 89945 ***