Only 6 Domain names ?!?

[Eric Smith]

John wrote:
> Something's been bothering me since I read it.
> In the newspaper's el-cheapo weekend supplement*
> it stated that:
>    Registered Internet Domain names, 2005: 63 million,
>       which is believable, but then said
>    Registered Internet Domain names, 1985: 6.
>
> This doesn't seem right.  200 I'd believe, but not 6.
> 20 companies and 60 Universities I'd believe, not 6.

The DNS spec (RFC 882 and 883) wasn't published until
November 1983, and it took a while for DNS to replace
the old hosts files.  In 1985 there were still many
sites that weren't yet using DNS.  Even so, 6 does
sound too low even for 1-Jan-1985.