428 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
428 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
[netinfo/us-domain.txt]
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The US Domain
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=============
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Introduction:
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The US domain is an official top-level domain in the Domain Name
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System (DNS) of the Internet community. It is registered with the
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Network Information Center (DDN-NIC). The domain administrators are
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Jon Postel and Ann Westine Cooper at the Information Sciences
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Institute of the University of Southern California (USC-ISI).
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The US domain hierarchy is based on political geography, that is, the US
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domain is subdivided into states, then cities, and so on. Any computer
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in the United States may be registered in the US domain.
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Typical host names in the US domain are:
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VIXIE.SF.CA.US
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DOGWOOD.ATL.GA.US
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KILLER.DALLAS.TX.US
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HOLODEK.SANTA-CRUZ.CA.US
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GRIAN.CPS.ALTADENA.CA.US
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Membership:
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Because many computers in the United States are already registered in
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the COM, EDU, and other top level domains, relatively few computers are
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currently registered in the US domain. However the US Domain is
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beginning to grow.
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In the past the computers registered the US Domain were primarily
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owned by small companies or individuals (and often located in homes).
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It is expected than many more computers of all types and belonging to
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all sizes of organizations will be registered in the US Domain.
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Large organizations or companies are also encouraged to register in
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the US Domain. Typically these have many hosts and will operate their
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own DNS name servers. The US Domain will delegate an appropriate part
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of the name space to such large organizations on the same terms as the
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NIC requires for delegations of portions of the COM or EDU domains.
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Administration:
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Currently, the US Domain and all of its subdivisions (i.e., states,
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cities etc.) are managed by the US Domain Registrar. The US Domain is
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just beginning to grow and we want to be careful about what names get
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used and how control is allocated until some usage patterns are
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established. We will run the servers for all the states in the US
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domain.
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Registration of a host in the US domain does not grant permission to use
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the Internet or its component networks. Any restrictions on sending
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mail through (or other use of) the Internet is independent of host
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registration in the US domain. Registration in the US domain does not
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allocate any IP address, or cause registration in HOSTS.TXT.
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There is no change in the procedures for registration in, or operation
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of, other top-level domains such as COM, EDU, GOV, MIL, NET, or ORG.
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These domains are not being moved under the US domain.
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Delegation:
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At some future point we will hand off the administration of individual
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states to appropriate responsible people, probably in the state they
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administer. Early experience shows that delegation of cities and of
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companies within cities is most practical. The delegated part of the
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name space will most likely be in the form of
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<org-name>.<city>.<state>.US.
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For example: IBM.ARMONK.NY.US.
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Generally, organizations requesting delegations must provide at least
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two independent DNS name servers in physically separate locations on
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the Internet that provide the the domain service for translating names
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to addresses in this domain.
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The state codes are those assigned by the US Postal Service. Cities
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may be named (designated) by their full name (spelled out with hyphens
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replacing spaces (e.g., Los-Angeles or New-York)), or by a city code.
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The first choice is the full city name, the second choice is the city
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codes from Western Union's "City Mnemonics" list, and a third choice
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is a code for your city that you choose. However, it is very
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desirable that all users in the same city use the same designator for
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the city.
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For example: Joes-Bar.Santa-Monica.CA.US
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Groups:
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The administrator of a company or the organizer of a group (or "domain
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park") of users with individual hosts may coordinate the registration of
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the group by forwarding all the information for the group to the US
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Domain Administrator.
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In this case, the explicit specific information for each host must be
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provided. All fully qualified names must be unique. If a host is not
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directly on the Internet an MX record is required pointing to an
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Internet host for forwarding. The forwarding host must be directly on
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the Internet (that is, have an IP address), no "double MX-ing" is
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allowed.
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A group coordinator of, for example, the Computer Club in Chicago (CLUB),
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could arrange to coordinate the registration of all the computers used
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by members of the club. The registered names might have the form:
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ALPHA.CLUB.CHI.IL.US MX 10 CS.CHICAGO-U.EDU
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Only hosts on the Internet can act as forwarding hosts. Hosts on
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networks such as UUCP, and BITNET, must be registered with an
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Internet forwarding host. When registering a destination host in the US
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domain with an MX record, the requester is responsible for also
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registering the destination host with the administrator of the
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forwarding host.
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For example, when a message is sent to "Susan@ALPHA.CLUB.CHI.IL.US"
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it will be routed to the Internet host "CS.CHICAGO-U.EDU" as directed
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by the MX record. The host "CS.CHICAGO-U.EDU" must know some way of
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delivering the message to the host "ALPHA.CLUB.CHI.IL.US" (uucp, slip,
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whatever). So the destination host (ALPHA.CLUB.CHI.IL.US) must be
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known to (registered with) the forwarding host (CS.CHICAGO-U.EDU), as
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well as being registered in the US domain DNS database.
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The administrator of the destination host must make an agreement with
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the administrator of the forwarding host for the forwarding service.
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This agreement must be in place before the request for registration is
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sent to the US Domain Administrator.
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Other Networks:
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A section of the DNS database is called a "zone". With careful
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coordination, a domain (like EDU) can be divided into several zones.
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This has been done for the EDU and COM domains to aid in the
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registration of hosts from the UUCP, and BITNET communities. If
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a host is registered in the UUCP, or BITNET, portion of a domain (as
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something.EDU or something.COM), it need not be registered in the US
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domain, unless a geographical name (something.city.state.US) is
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desired.
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If a host is in a UUCP, or BITNET, network, it doesn't need to
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register in the US domain, unless it wants to be registered with a
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geographical DNS domain name.
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Only hosts on the Internet can act as forwarding hosts. Hosts on
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networks such as UUCP,or BITNET, etc., must affiliate their hosts
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with an Internet host. This is necessary because when messages for
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your host arrive at the Internet host it will need to know where to
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forward them. MX records are necessary.
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Unique Name:
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It is the policy that a computer must have a single primary name, so it
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should not be registered in both US and COM (or both US and EDU). It is
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possible to have "nicknames" for a brief period while a host name change
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is in progress.
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Wild Cards:
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While we strongly believe that it is in everyone's interest and good
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for the Internet to have each host explicitly registered (that is, we
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believe that wild cards should not be used), we also realize that not
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everyone agrees with this belief. Thus, we will allow wild card
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records in the US domain under groups or organizations. For example,
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"*.BIRDSONG.SUVL.CA.US".
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Servers:
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The US domain is currently supported by four name servers:
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VENERA.ISI.EDU, VAXA.ISI.EDU, HERCULES.CSL.SRI.COM, and NNSC.NSF.NET.
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Cost:
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Currently, there is no cost for registering a host in the US domain.
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References:
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RFC-974, Partridge, C., "Mail Routing and the Domain Name System".
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RFC-1034, Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities".
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RFC-1035, Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Implementation and Specification".
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Registration:
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To register in the US Domain send a message to the US Domain Registrar
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(Cooper@ISI.EDU). The response will be a US Domain Questionnaire for
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you to fill out.
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In several cities a "coordinator" has volunteered to process requests
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locally and communicate with the US Domain Registrar on behalf of all
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interested users in that city, or organization within that city. If
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in your request we see that you are in a city or organization with a
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coordinator we will refer you to that coordinator.
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More Information:
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For more information about the US domain please contact:
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Ann Westine Cooper at (COOPER@ISI.EDU).
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August 1990
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US DOMAIN QUESTIONNAIRE FOR HOST ENTRY
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To register a host in the US domain, the following information must be
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sent to the US Domain Registrar, Ann Westine Cooper (COOPER@ISI.EDU).
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Questions may be sent by electronic mail to the above address, or by
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phone at (213-822- 1511).
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(1) The name of the top-level domain to join.
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For example: US
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(2) The name of the administrative head of the organization, including
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title, mailing address, phone number, organization, and network
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mailbox. This is the contact point for administrative and policy
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questions about the domain. In the case of a research project,
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this should be the principal investigator.
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For example:
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Administrator
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Organization The NetWorthy Corporation
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Name Penelope Q. Sassafrass
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Title President
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Mail Address The NetWorthy Corporation
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4676 Andrews Way, Suite 100
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Santa Clara, CA 94302-1212
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Phone Number (415) 123-4567
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Net Mailbox Sassafrass@ECHO.TNC.COM
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Postel & Cooper [Page 1]
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Domain Questionnaire August 1991
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(3) The name of the technical contact for the entry, including title,
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mailing address, phone number, organization, and network mailbox.
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This is the contact point for problems concerning the domain or
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zone, as well as for updating information about the domain or zone.
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For example:
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Technical Contact
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Organization The NetWorthy Corporation
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Name Ansel A. Aardvark
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Title Executive Director
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Mail Address The NetWorthy Corporation
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4676 Andrews Way, Suite 100
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Santa Clara, CA. 94302-1212
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Phone Number (415) 123-6789
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Net Mailbox Aardvark@ECHO.TNC.COM
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(4) The name of the host. This is the name that will be used in tables
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and lists associating the domain with the domain server addresses.
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[While, from a technical standpoint, domain names can be quite long
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(programmers beware), shorter names are easier for people to cope
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with.]
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For example: NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
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Or: Alpha.NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
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Beta.NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
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(5) If this machine is not directly on the internet, how does it
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communicate with the Internet. Through UUCP, CREN, etc? Which
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forwarding host?
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For example: The host "Networthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US" uses UUCP
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to connect to "RELAY.ISI.EDU" which is an Internet host.
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The administrator of RELAY.ISI.EDU must agree to be the
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forwarding host for Networthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US, and the
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forwarding host must know a delivery method and route to it.
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No double MXing.
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Postel & Cooper [Page 2]
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Domain Questionnaire August 1991
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If you are requesting an indirect connection, that is, a Mail
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Exchanger (MX) record, what is the name and mailbox of the
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administrator of the forwarding host.
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For example:John Smith
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js@RELAY.ISI.EDU
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(6) Please describe your organization briefly.
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For example: The NetWorthy Corporation is a consulting
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organization of people working with UNIX and the C language in an
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electronic networking environment. It sponsors two technical
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conferences annually and distributes a bimonthly newsletter.
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(7) What Domain Name System (DNS) Resource Records (RR) and values are
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to be entered.
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a. A Internet Address (internet hosts only)
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b. HINFO Host Information, Machine System
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c. WKS Well Known Services, Protocols, Ports (internet hosts only)
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d. MX Mail Exchanger (required for UUCP, and CREN hosts)
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An example of RRs for an internet host.
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NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US IN A 128.9.3.123
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IN HINFO SUN-3/11OC UNIX
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IN MX 10 ISI.EDU
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IN WKS 128.9.3.123. UDP (echo
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tftp)
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IN WKS 128.9.3.133. TCP (telnet
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ftp
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tftp
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finger)
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An example of RRs for a non-internet host.
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Beta.NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US MX 10 RELAY.ISI.EDU
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HINFO SUN-3/11OC UNIX
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Postel & Cooper [Page 3]
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Domain Questionnaire August 1991
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(8) Where is the IN-ADDR pointer record to be entered. (For internet
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hosts only.) It is your responsibility to see that this is done.
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Contact the administrator of the IP network your host is on.
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For example:
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123.3.9.128.IN-ADDR.ARPA. PTR NetWorthy.Santa-Clara.CA.US
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Who is the contact for the zone of the IN-ADDR.ARPA data, where
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this record will be entered?
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(9) What Time to Live (TTL)? TTL is the time (in seconds) that a
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resolver will use the data it got from the domain server before it
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asks it again for the data. A typical TTL is One Week 604800.
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(NOTE: TTL is not applicable to non-Internet hosts.)
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For example:
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One Week 604800
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Postel & Cooper [Page 4]
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