🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1991Jun25.182614.6784@agate.berkeley.edu> wisner@mica.Berkeley.EDU 
(Bill Wisner) says

> I'll now repeat an offer I've made before (and Karl Kleinpaste has made 
> quite often): if any UUCP site out there wants a domain, contact me.  I 
> will personally see that it is registered, arrange for nameservers, and if
> necessary even provide MX forwarding.  And I'll do this all for free. 

and in <1991Jun25.220349.26030@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu 
(David Lesher) responds

> This is an outstanding offer, and one I'd like to avail myself of. I
> will be moving back to the DC area soon. I have an account on a UUCP
> site, but none on an Internet-connected one. I'm thinking up starting
> up my own, and need a MX host local to the DC area. Where do I call?
> (Anywhere in the metro DC - i.e.  703/202/301 flat rate call will do.)
> [For that matter, the existing .UUCP site would love one too....]

I don't suppose there's a list or newsgroup for hosts who want to volunteer
to be forwarders?  ;-})  But that's not really why I post.  

As of last night, 1,864 .COM subdomains were registered with nic.ddn.mil. 
I suspect that many of these subdomains have been created because of the
increasing interest in having a domain name and that quite a few may consist 
of only one machine.  Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but I'm curious as
to why more emphasis hasn't been placed on the .US domain option.  It might 
be just the ticket for a situation such as David describes, but appears, at
least to an "outsider", to be languishing.  Btw, my knowledge about the .US
domain comes primarily from the file NETINFO:US-DOMAIN.TXT, which can be
ftp'd from NIC.DDN.MIL or ordered by mail 

To: service@nic.ddn.mil
Subj: netinfo us-domain.txt

A fact sheet from that file is extracted below.

Ric <nauen@wrair-emh1.army.mil>  <nauen%wrmain.decnet@detrick-emh1.army.mil>
           ^^^^^Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

           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 over much of 
        the country or 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 its
    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 is 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.

        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 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, (e.g.,
        AUVM.AUVM.EDU in the BITNET Zone or TWWELLS.COM in the UUCP 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 for mail exchange with an internet host.
        This is necessary because when messages for them 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.

For more information about the US domain please contact Ann Westine at
WESTINE@ISI.EDU.