LukasJul 18, 2025

Mildly cursed factoid about UNC paths:

- UNC Paths can contain IP addresses such as \\192.168.1.1\share
- IPv6 addresses are supported as well
- IPv6 addresses contain colons
- can't have colons in Windows paths since colons are reserved for drive letters

So Microsoft came up with the the ipv6-literal.net domain that's special-cased by Windows so you can to write IPv6 addresses in UNC paths as 2a0e-3c0--21.ipv6-literal.net without it hitting any resolvers.

Show thread🌸 lily πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ   ΞΈΞ” ⋐ & ∞Jul 18, 2025
@karotte why did they do it like that ​​
Show threadLukasJul 18, 2025

@tauon I mean, what else could they have done? I agree that the solution is a bit bonkers, but I don't immediately see any other viable solutions that don't conflict with anything else.

They could at least held on to the ipv6-literal.net domain.

Show threadJuli JaneJul 18, 2025
@karotte @tauon What else they could have done? Well maybe implement some logic which does not make any use of colons in a path impossible. It would be quite clear in this use case that it can't be meant as a drive name.
Show thread🌸 lily πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ   ΞΈΞ” ⋐ & ∞
@julijane @karotte it's too late for that
Jul 18, 2025 at 5:16pmWeb