Can't Access Certain Websites that have a (-)

I diged in the RFC and found this out: They (domain names) 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. (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1035.html - 2.3.1. Preferred name syntax).

It seems that tumblr allows to create domain names that are not compatible with the mentioned RFC.

I can also confirm that it did not work for me on Linux and FreeBSD with Firefox and Opera but worked without a problem on Vista with Firefox and IE.

So is there anyway that I can get it to work on Linux?

I don't think so, sadly... I would suggest you to open a bug report.

Thank you, though.

http://texasissouth.tumblr.com/

Works fine, also please note:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\User>nslookup http://-texasissouth.tumblr.com
Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: proxy-tumblelogs.d1.tumblr.com
Address: 174.121.98.168
Aliases: http://-texasissouth.tumblr.com

C:\Users\User>nslookup http://texasissouth.tumblr.com
Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: proxy-tumblelogs.d1.tumblr.com
Address: 174.121.98.168
Aliases: http://texasissouth.tumblr.com

So both with and without the minus sign goes to the same server. Whomever is giving you this URL is full of crap. Use the link without the minus sign and it will be fine.

-texasissouth.tumblr.com and texasissouth.tumblr.com are not the same blog. One is run by a female, one by a male. Just because they both go to the same IP doesn't mean anything. If you look, the server is tumblr, not their respective IP. Tumblr is a blog hosting site. When I was on windows, I looked up the same thing, and found out that it is not the same blog.

Thank you though.

The webserver by default will use port 80 by default, there is no port set so the default port will be used. The names resolve to the same IP so it should be the same page as the browser is connecting to the same port on the same page. Maybe the page notices the minus sign and changes something but as RFC1035 states, domains must begin with a letter, so the site is BREAKING defacto internet standards. Linux adheres to these standards so may be explain your issues. IE and Windows are notorious for having their own way of doing stuff and breaking standards. This makes them harder to write pages for.

I have absolutely no idea what any of that means. Can you make that a little simpler?

The internet is based HEAVILY on standards. TCP/IP on one system will talk to TCP/IP on another no matter if they are different systems, different operating systems or if they are tings like phones and such.It's all the same. There is the ISO company who define these standards and companies use them so that their software and hardware works with the rest of everybody elses stuff.

The standards are tangiable and are defined in RFC (report for comment) and can be changed by users and the ISO will consider the change and perhaps revise.

Companies like Microsoft break these standards so that users have to use their products so that their life is smoother and is why Linux users find issues with softwares and hardwares.

Your browser in Windows (Especially IE) break these agreements and make web page coding harder as these differences must be accommodated. What should happen is that their sould be ONE way to code the page and the browsers will interpret it the same and then render it in their own way.

Okay, so this helps me how...?

Yes, thank you. And I'm sorry for being a little thick-headed. I'm new to the whole Ubuntu thing.

Discussing standards isn't ubuntu specific. It's every device which can access web pages.