As per Relevance of the word registration, we have this rfc below:
Network Working Group Federal Networking
Request For Comments: 1816 August 1995
Obsoletes: 1811
Category:
U.S. Government Internet Domain
Status of this
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution
this memo is unlimited
This memo provides an update and clarification to RFC 1811.
document describes the registration policies for the top-level
".GOV". Thus far, Federal Agencies and their subsidiaries
registered without any guidance. This has resulted in
registrations for Federal Agencies and naming schemes that do
facilitate responsiveness to the public. This document fixes this
restricting registrations to coincide with the approved structure
the US government. The document cited, FIPS 95-1, provides
standard recognized structure into which domain registrations
.GOV can be fit. This policy is exactly comparable to that for
top-level domains. The IANA requires that an organization/
apply for and get a 2 letter code from ISO/ITU (e.g., US for
States) for additional top-level registration
As a side effect, this reduces the number of .GOV level
and reduces the workload on the Internic
U.S. GOVERNMENT INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES
The .GOV domain is delegated from the root authority to the
Federal Networking Council. The .GOV domain is for registration
US governmental entities on the federal level only.
for state and local governmental agencies shall be made under the .
domain in accordance with the policies for that domain
1) The document "Codes for the Identification of Federal
Federally Assisted Organizations", FIPS 95-1 (or its successor
lists the official names of US Government agencies
A) Top-level entities (e.g., those with codes ending in 00 such
"1200 Department of Agriculture"), and independent agencies
organizations (e.g., "National Science Foundation and other non
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RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
indented listings unless prohibited below) as listed in
document are eligible for registration directly under .GOV
B) Autonomous law enforcement components of top-level
(e.g., "Federal Bureau of Investigation", "Secret Service", "
Guard") are also eligible for registration
C) Cross-agency collaborative organizations (e.g., "
Networking Council", "Information Infrastructure Task Force")
eligible for registration under .GOV upon presentation of
chartering document and are the only non-FIPS-
organizations eligible for registration under .GOV
D) Subsidiary, non-autonomous components of top-level or
entities are not eligible for separate registration
International organizations listed in this document are
eligible for registration under .GOV
E) Organizations listed as "Federally Aided Organizations" are
eligible for registration under .GOV and should register
.ORG or other appropriate top-level domain
F) Organizations subsidiary to "Department of Defense"
register under the ".MIL" domain via the Defense Data
Network Information Center - contact registrar@nic.ddn.mil
The only standard exceptions to these rules are changes
governmental structure due to statutory, regulatory or
directives not yet reflected in the above document. The
agency should provide documentation in one of the above forms
request an exception. Other requests for exception should
referred to the Federal Networking Council
2) A domain name should be derived from the official name for
organization (e.g., "USDA.Gov" or "Agriculture.GOV".)
registration shall be listed in the registration database under
official name (per FIPS 95-1) for the organization or under the
in the chartering document
3) Only ONE registration and delegation shall be made per agency
The .GOV registration authority shall provide registrations on
first-come first-served basis. It is an individual agency matter
to which portion of the agency is responsible for managing the
space under a delegated agency domain
4) Those agencies and entities that have multiple registrations
.GOV may retain them for a maximum of 3 years from the
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RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
date of this document. Within 6 months after the publication of
document, one permanent domain must be selected for the agency.
other (auxiliary) domains must cease further sub-delegations
registrations at this time. As of 1 year after the publication
this document, the auxiliary domains will become undelegated and
revert to the control of the .GOV owner. As of 2 years after
publication of this document, all registrations in the
domains must be mirrored in the permanent domain and those names
be used where possible. At the 3 year point, all auxiliary
registrations will be deleted
5) Those agencies and entities already registered in .GOV but
listed in FIPS 95-1 (e.g., DOE labs, state entities) may retain
registration within the constraint of the single registration
(see para 4). No further non-FIPS-listed registrations will be made
State and local entities are strongly encouraged to re-register
.US, but this is not mandatory
[1] Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 95-1 (
PUB 95-1, "Codes for the Identification of Federal and
Assisted Organizations", U.S. Department of Commerce,
Institute of Standards and Technology, January 4, 1993.
[2] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation",
1591, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1994.
* All current registrations in .GOV are grandfathered and do
require re-registration with the exception of duplicate
for the SAME organization at the same level. E.g., two
which represent the Department of Transportation would be duplicates
registrations for each of the Department of Transportation and
FAA would not (The FAA is an autonomous component contained
the DOT).
* The policy requires resolution of all duplicate
within the next three years
* Local and state agencies registered under the ".GOV" domain
remain there. However, they are strongly encouraged to transfer
the US domain
* Cross-agency collaborative efforts may register under ".ORG"
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RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
".US" as an alternative to asking for an exception to the policy
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS /
EXISTING .GOV
Q. What are examples of FIPS-95-1 Departments possessing
top level domain names, and what guidance has been given to
regarding these names
A. Examples of FIPS-95-1 Departments with duplicate DNS'
"STATE.GOV" and "LABOR.GOV". These departments have six months
determine which name is permanent and which is auxiliary and
years to drop the auxiliary registration
Q. Currently, our services are defined as www.cdc.gov, ftp.cdc.gov
and gopher.cdc.gov. Does this proposal mean that our names will
be: www.ntb.ops.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, etc or at a minimum
www.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, ftp.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov,
gopher.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov
A. In the case of CDC, NIST, NIH, FDA, and the numerous other non
FIPS-95-1 agencies registered with ".GOV" domains, there will be
changes. The existing DNSs of these agencies are grandfathered
this policy. In addition, the policy effects only the
allowed to be registered directly under .GOV; further delegations
under the control of the subdomain owner. For the above,
the HHS subdomain owner concurs, there is no problem with the
registering "cdc.dhhs.gov" as a subdomain of "dhhs.gov".
Q. How will registrations by Federal Laboratories be addressed
A. The existing domain names will be grandfathered, i.e., LBL.GOV
Any new registrations will generally be within the domain of
sponsoring agency (and subject to that agencies policies), within
.US domain as a geographic entity, or within the .ORG domain
Q. What are some examples of state government agencies
under ".GOV" domain? Will they need to change their DNS
A. Examples of cities and states that originally registered
the ".GOV" include
WA.GOV Department of Information Services, State of
LA.GOV Bureau of Sanitation, City of Los
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RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
These entities are strongly encouraged to reregister in the ".US
domain but this is NOT mandatory. No further state and
agencies will be registered under .GOV
Q. It is not in anyone's best interest to name things
organizational boundaries as these things change. Internet
names and host names, once defined and used, become so
distributed that they become virtually impossible to change
Organizational structure changes but not the underlying
structure
A. The policy does not require organizations to change their
once established, but individual agency policies may. The DNS
contains some capabilities to assist in name transition - the
record provides a capability for cross-domain aliases which can
used to ease a transition between one name space and another.
noted in the clarifications, naming and subdomain conventions
an agency or department DNS delegation are solely the province
that entity
Q. How can two entities have the same name registered? How
this apply to NIH.GOV, FDA.GOV, and CDC.GOV, all of which are
components of DHHS/PHS? NCIFCRF.GOV is a component of NIH. Does
have to change? I don't understand how a distinction is made if
are grandfathered and some are not
A. US-STATE.GOV and STATE.GOV for example. The problem is
one entity with two names. NIH.GOV and FDA.GOV represent
entities (albeit within DHHS). If there were an NIH.GOV and an NIH
EAST.GOV for example, NIH would have to eliminate one of
(probably moving NIH-EAST.GOV to EAST.NIH.GOV).
Q. How much is the taxpayer being asked to spend to alter tens
thousands of existing computer and telecommunications systems
support RFC 1816?
A. There are currently less that half-a-dozen duplicate DNS names
the FIPS-95-1 level which will need to be changed. Given the
that this will be accomplished over the next three years, the
should be minimal
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RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
CROSS-AGENCY
Q. An organization maintains a domain name which represents
cross-agency community, IC.GOV, which represents members of
intelligence community. As a cross-agency collaborative effort,
the domain have to be reregistered
A. The policy states that "Cross-agency collaborative
(e.g., "Federal Networking Council", "Information Infrastructure
Force") are eligible for registration under .GOV upon presentation
the chartering document and are the only non-FIPS-
organizations eligible for registration under .GOV." "IC.GOV
however, is grandfathered since it is an existing domain
Nevertheless, it would be appropriate to provide a copy of
chartering document to the FNC for the record. This would
future changes to the IC.GOV domain if necessary
FUTURE .GOV
Q. Top level domains are roughly equivalent to the cabinet-
agencies identified in FIPS-95-1. What will happen if non-FIPS-95-1
entities apply for the ".GOV" registration in the future
A. The Internic will use RFC 1816 as guidance and will not grant
".GOV" to any new entity which is not listed in the FIPS-95-1
which has not been granted an exception status by the FNC
Committee
Q. Suppose NIH were moved to a new Dept. of Science? Would
domain name have to be changed
A. NIH.GOV is grandfathered under the existing policy and would
change. The "Department of Science" under its own policies
require you to re-register though
FNC
Q. It is unclear how this will policy will facilitate access by
public to our information, especially since most of the
doesn't know our organizational structure or that CDC is part
DHHS/PHS
A. The policy attempts to avoid confusion as an increasing number
entities register under the ".GOV" domain and to transfer
and responsibility for domain name space to the appropriate
and away from a centralized authority. For facilitating access
various tools and capabilities are coming into use on the
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RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
all the time. Most of these tools provide a fairly strong
capability which should obviate most concerns of finding
based on domain names
Q. Section 1D of RFC 1816 unfairly constrains the
within the .gov domain in stark contrast to Section 1F which
.mil domain organizations full freedom to operate subdomains in
manner chosen
A. The Federal Networking Council has jurisdiction over the ".GOV
domain names; ".MIL" domain names fall within the jurisdiction of
Department of Defense. The .MIL domain has had a written
delimiting which DOD agencies get registered directly under .
since about 1987 when the DNS first started to come into use
Individual agencies under the .MIL domain (e.g., AF.MIL/US Air Force
are responsible for setting policy within their domains and
registrations within those domains. This is exactly equivalent
the .GOV domain - an individual agency (e.g., Treasury.GOV/Dept
Treasury) may and should set policy for subregistrations within
domain
Q. Section 1B identifies several law enforcement agencies as
"autonomous" for the purposes of domain registration. What is
selection criteria for an "autonomous law enforcement" agency?
instance, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is responsible for
enforcement as is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).
A. The selection criteria for "law enforcement agency" is based
primary mission. A case could be made for either or both of
being law enforcement agencies, although the IRS' primary mission
tax revenue collection and has few armed officers relative to
size. An "autonomous" agency is one with mission and role
and (possibly) separate from its containing department
Unfortunately, 95-1 does not do a good job of
"autonomous" entities. In the event of problems with registration
ask the registrar to get a ruling from the FNC
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RFC 1816 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names August 1995
ROUTING
Q. How will Domain Name Service resolution on the Net work?
of a root DNS server returning the address of cdc.gov and
directing inquires to our DNS servers, will the root server return
DNS pointer to DHHS, then DHHS will resolve to PHS, then a fourth
query to get to CDC? This will add unnecessary traffic to the Net
(example is host.CDC.PHS.DHHS.GOV
A. The answer is based on how you (personally and agency wide
configure your servers. First, most servers cache previous answers -
they may have to ask once, but generally remember the answer if
need it again. Information directly under .GOV will be fairly long
lived which substantially reduces the requirement to query .
server. Secondly, multiple levels of the DNS tree MAY reside on
same server. In the above example the information for DHHS.GOV
PHS.DHHS.GOV and CDC.PHS.DHHS.GOV could all reside on the
server. Assuming the location of the DHHS.GOV server was not cached
it would require 2 queries. Further queries would cache the
of this server and the servers associated with the domains it serves
Lastly, the individual agencies may structure their domains as
please. CDC could reside directly under DHHS.GOV as CDC.DHHS.
subject to HHS's own policies
Security
Security issues are not discussed in this memo
Author's
Federal Networking
4001 N. Fairfax
Arlington, VA 22203
Phone: (703) 522-6410
EMail: execdir@fnc.
URL: http://www.fnc.
Federal Networking Council Informational [Page 8]
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