shuford@cs.utk.edu (Richard Shuford) (12/03/90)
Here follows a replica of some official information from a few months ago.
.....RSS
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Request: info
Topic: us-domain
Updated: 9 Jul 90
Subject: The US Domain. Policy and Registration Application
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CSNET Coordination and Information Center (CIC)
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Info-Server requests to: info-server@cs.net
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[NETINFO:US-DOMAIN.TXT] [3/90 DMac]
The US Domain
The US domain is an official top-level domain in the Domain Name System
(DNS) of the Internet community. It is registered with the Network
Information Center at SRI International (SRI-NIC). The domain
administrators are Jon Postel and Ann Westine at the Information
Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California (USC-ISI).
The US domain hierarchy is based on political geography, that is, the US
domain is subdivided into states, then cities, and so on. Any computer
in the United States may be registered in the US domain.
Typical host names in the US domain are:
VIXIE.SF.CA.US
DOGWOOD.ATL.GA.US
KILLER.DALLAS.TX.US
HOLODEK.SANTA-CRUZ.CA.US
GRIAN.CPS.ALTADENA.CA.US
Because many computers in the United States are already registered in
the COM, EDU, and other top level domains, relatively few computers are
currently registered in the US domain. The computers that are
registered are primarily owned by small companies or individuals (and
often located in homes). It is expected than many more computers of all
types and belonging to all sizes of organizations will be registered in
the US domain.
There is no change in the procedures for registration in, or operation
of, other top-level domains such as COM, EDU, GOV, INT, MIL, NET, or
ORG. These domains are not being moved under the US domain.
Registration of a host in the US domain does not grant permission to use
the Internet or its component networks. Any restrictions on sending
mail through (or other use of) the Internet is independent of host
registration in the US domain. Registration in the US domain does not
allocate any IP address, or cause registration in HOSTS.TXT.
Currently, the US domain and all of its subdivisions (that is, states
and cities) are managed by the US Domain Administrator. At some time in
the future the administration of individual states and cities will be
transferred to appropriate responsible people.
The codes for states are taken from the U.S. Postal Service ZIP Code
Directory, and the names for cities may be either the full names of
cities (with hyphens instead of spaces) or the short code for a city
name from the Western Union list.
The administrator of a company or the organizer of a group (or "domain
park") of users with individual hosts may coordinate the registration of
the group by forwarding all the information for the group to the US
Domain Administrator.
The explicit specific information for each host must be provided. All
fully qualified names must be unique. If a host is not directly on the
Internet an MX record is required pointing to an Internet host for
forwarding. The forwarding host must be directly on the Internet (that
is, have an IP addresss), no "double MX-ing" is allowed.
A group coordinator of, for example, the Computer Club in Chicago (CCC),
could arrange to coordinate the registration of all the computers used
by members of the club. The registered names might have the form:
PC37.CCC.CHI.IL.US MX 10 CS.UOFC.EDU
Only hosts on the Internet can act as forwarding hosts. Hosts on
networks such as CSNET, UUCP, BITNET, must be registered with an
Internet forwarding host. When registering a destination host in the US
domain with an MX record, the requester is responsible for also
registering the destination host with the administrator of the
forwarding host. For example, when a messages is sent to
"Susan@PC37.CCC.CHI.IL.US" it will be routed to the Internet host
"CS.UOFC.EDU" as directed by the MX record. The host "CS.UOFC.EDU" must
know some way of delivering the message to the host "PC37.CCC.CHI.IL.US"
(uucp, slip, whatever). So the destination host (PC37.CCC.CHI.IL.US)
must be known to (registered with) the forwarding host (CS.UOFC.EDU), as
well as being registered in the US domain DNS database.
The administrator of the destination host must make an agreement with
the administrator of the forwarding host for the forwarding service.
This agreement must be in place before the request for registration is
sent to the US Domain Administrator.
A section of the DNS database is called a "zone". With careful
coordination, a domain (like EDU) can be divided into several zones.
This has been done for the EDU and COM domains to aid in the
registration of hosts from the UUCP, CSNET and BITNET communities. If a
host is registered in UUCP, BITNET, or CSNET zone (as something.EDU or
something.COM), it need not be registered in the US domain, unless a
geographical name (something.city.state.US) is desired.
It is the policy that a computer must have a single primary name, so it
should not be registered in both US and COM (or both US and EDU). It is
possible to have "nicknames" for a brief period while a host name change
is in progress.
Wild card records are not currently allowed in the US domain.
The US domain is currently supported by four name servers:
VENERA.ISI.EDU, VAXA.ISI.EDU, HERCULES.CSL.SRI.COM, and NNSC.NSF.NET.
There is no cost for registering a host in the US domain.
For information on internet domains in general, see RFC-1034,
Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities, and RFC-1035,
Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Implementation and Specification.
For more information about the US domain please contact Ann Westine at
WESTINE@ISI.EDU.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US Domain Policy and Procedures - September 1988
------------------------------------------------
1. What is the US Domain and who is eligible to register?
The US domain is a Top Level domain created for people in the
United States who have computers at home, or small local
corporations who would like to register their host
geographically. A large corporation with offices all over the
world would probably want to register with .COM.
2. How do you register a host in the US Domain?
Send a message to the US Domain Registrar (Westine@ISI.EDU).
She will send you a US Domain Questionnaire to fill out.
3. How is the Naming Scheme set up for the US Domain and it's
subdivisions?
The US Domain is set up geographically, that is, states, cities,
etc. The state codes are those assigned by the US Postal
Service, and the city codes are Western Union's "City Mnemonics"
code that we will send to you. Another alternative for the city
code it to use the full name of your city.
For example: academ.hou.tx.us (or)
academ.houston.tx.us
4. Who will administer the US Domain and its subdivisions?
For now, the US Domain and all of its subdivisions (i.e.,
states, cities etc.) are managed by the US Domain Registrar.
The US Domain is just getting started and we want to be careful
about what names get used and how control is allocated until
some usage patterns are established. We will run the servers
for all the US domains. At some future point we will hand off
the administration of individual states to appropriate
responsible people, probably in the state they administer.
5. Can I manage a Domain Group?
The organizer of a group (or "domain park") of users with
individual hosts can help by acting as the coordinator of the
group and forwarding all the information for the group to the US
Domain Registrar.
[Page 1]
September 1988
The explicit specific information for each host in the group
must be provided. And all fully qualified names must be unique.
If your host is not directly on the internet an MX record is
required pointing to an internet host for forwarding.
For example:
JOES-HOST.ACADEM.HOU.TX.US MX 10 GAZETTE.BCM.TMC.EDU
SAMS-HOST.ACADEM.HOU.TX.US MX 10 GAZETTE.BCM.TMC.EDU
Wild card records are not currently allowed in the US domain.
If you want to keep tabs on user individual hosts in a certain
group and to register them say under "Houston" in the TX.US
domain, for example, JOES-HOST.ACADEM.HOUSTON.TX.US with
"ACADEM" as the group you would be managing, this would be ok.
But you can't manage all "HOUSTON" or all "TX", just your group.
6. How will the US Domain affect hosts in UUCP, CSNET and BITNET Zones?
If a host is registered in UUCP, BITNET, or CSNET Zone, it
doesn't need to register in the US domain, unless it wants to be
registered geographically. Only hosts on the internet can act
as forwarding hosts. Hosts on systems such as CSNET, UUCP,
BITNET, etc., must register their hosts with an internet host.
This is necessary because when messages for your host arrive at
the internet host it will need to know where to forward them.
MX records are necessary.
7. Can a host be in both the US Domain and another domain (like .EDU
or .COM)?
No. A host should have a single name. It is possible to have
"nicnames" for a brief period while a host name change is in
progress.
8. What does it cost?
Currently, there is no cost for registering in the US Domain.
[Page 2]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 1990
US DOMAIN QUESTIONNAIRE FOR HOST ENTRY
To register a host in the US domain, the following information must be
sent to the US Domain Registrar (WESTINE@ISI.EDU). Questions may be
sent by electronic mail to the above address, or by phone at (213-822-
1511).
(1) The name of the top-level domain to join.
For example: US
(2) The name of the administrative head of the organization, including
title, mailing address, phone number, organization, and network
mailbox. This is the contact point for administrative and policy
questions about the domain. In the case of a research project,
this should be the principal investigator.
For example:
Administrator
Organization The NetWorthy Corporation
Name Penelope Q. Sassafrass
Title President
Mail Address The NetWorthy Corporation
4676 Andrews Way, Suite 100
Santa Clara, CA 94302-1212
Phone Number (415) 123-4567
Net Mailbox Sassafrass@ECHO.TNC.COM
Postel & Westine [Page 1]
Domain Questionnaire March 1990
(3) The name of the technical contact for the entry, including title,
mailing address, phone number, organization, and network mailbox.
This is the contact point for problems concerning the domain or
zone, as well as for updating information about the domain or zone.
For example:
Technical Contact
Organization The NetWorthy Corporation
Name Ansel A. Aardvark
Title Executive Director
Mail Address The NetWorthy Corporation
4676 Andrews Way, Suite 100
Santa Clara, CA. 94302-1212
Phone Number (415) 123-6789
Net Mailbox Aardvark@ECHO.TNC.COM
(4) The name of the host. This is the name that will be used in tables
and lists associating the domain with the domain server addresses.
[While, from a technical standpoint, domain names can be quite long
(programmers beware), shorter names are easier for people to cope
with.]
For example: NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
Or: Alpha.NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
Beta.NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
(5) If this machine is not directly on the internet, how does it
communicate with the Internet. Through UUCP, CREN, etc? Which
forwarding host?
For example: The host "Networthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US" uses UUCP
to connect to "RELAY.ISI.EDU" which is an Internet host.
The administrator of RELAY.ISI.EDU must agree to be the
forwarding host for Networthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US, and the
forwarding host must know a delivery method and route to it.
No double MXing.
Postel & Westine [Page 2]
Domain Questionnaire March 1990
If you are requesting an indirect connection, that is, a Mail
Exchanger (MX) record, what is the name and mailbox of the
administrator of the forwarding host.
For example:John Smith
js@RELAY.ISI.EDU
(6) Please describe your organization briefly.
For example: The NetWorthy Corporation is a consulting
organization of people working with UNIX and the C language in an
electronic networking environment. It sponsors two technical
conferences annually and distributes a bimonthly newsletter.
(7) What Domain Name System (DNS) Resource Records (RR) and values are
to be entered.
a. A Internet Address (internet hosts only)
b. HINFO Host Information, Machine System
c. WKS Well Known Services, Protocols, Ports (internet hosts only)
d. MX Mail Exchanger (required for UUCP, and CREN hosts)
An example of RRs for an internet host.
NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US IN A 128.9.3.123
IN HINFO SUN-3/11OC UNIX
IN MX 10 ISI.EDU
IN WKS 128.9.3.123. UDP (echo
tftp)
IN WKS 128.9.3.133. TCP (telnet
ftp
tftp
finger)
An example of RRs for a non-internet host.
Beta.NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US MX 10 RELAY.ISI.EDU
HINFO SUN-3/11OC UNIX
Postel & Westine [Page 3]
Domain Questionnaire March 1990
(8) Where is the IN-ADDR pointer record to be entered. (For internet
hosts only.)
For example:
123.3.9.128.IN-ADDR.ARPA. PTR NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
Who is the contact for the zone of the IN-ADDR.ARPA data, where
this record will be entered?
(9) What Time to Live (TTL)? TTL is the time (in seconds) that a
resolver will use the data it got from the domain server before it
asks it again for the data. A typical TTL is One Week 604800.
(NOTE: TTL is not applicable to non-Internet hosts.)
For example:
One Week 604800
Postel & Westine [Page 4]
--
....Richard S. Shuford
....Internet: shuford@cs.utk.edu BITNET: RSHUFORD@UTKVX BIX: richard