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Path: utzoo!utgpu!dennis
From: dennis@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Dennis Ferguson)
Date: Wed, 22-Nov-89 18:48:23 EST
Message-ID: <1989Nov22.184823.28878@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Internet and Bitnet Directories?
References: <1360@sagepub.UUCP> <1810004@hpiag0.IAG.HP.COM> <1989Nov17.014854.23205@terminator.cc.umich.edu> <5266@yunexus.UUCP> <2172@prune.bbn.com> <5299@yunexus.UUCP> <6920@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: dennis@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Dennis Ferguson)

In article <6920@portia.Stanford.EDU> jqj@rt-jqj.stanford.edu (JQ Johnson) writes:
>It is often suggested that sites on bitnet register domain-style names
>under a .BITNET domain, but the reply is always that the NIC will not
>accept such a top level domain.  Perhaps it would be appropriate to
>register all BITNET sites under the BITNET parent organization?  Thus,
>we might have DNS addresses such as "site.cren.org" and a CREN.ORG
>domain administered by the CSnet organization.  Or perhaps a CREN.NET
>or even CS.NET?

Far be it for me to put words in the NIC's mouth, but what is often
missed is that UTORVM1.BITNET isn't really a name at all, not in the
same sense as VM.UTCS.UTORONTO.CA.  "UTORVM1" is an NJE network level
address, it is used by the networking software on bitnet machines for
routing purposes.  Its nearest functional analogue (and a pretty good
match in terms of function, at that) for hosts on an IP network would
be something like 128.100.63.2.INTERNET.  I think the reason the NIC
won't register .BITNET (and shouldn't register CREN.ORG or CREN.NET to
be used for the same purpose) is about the same reason they don't register
a .INTERNET domain with the usage above.

Or, going at it another way, the University of Toronto is a member of
NetNorth, which I guess makes this a BITNET site.  Should we then
register all of the hosts here as something.BITNET?  No, say you, only
the ones that are attached to the NJE network (since, implicitly,
"something" is not just a name, it must be an NJE network address).
Similarly, there are lots of machines which wouldn't qualify for a
name of the form 128.100.63.2.INTERNET, either.  Yet pretty well all
machines here can make use of names with .toronto.edu or .utoronto.ca on
the end, since these names carry distinctly different (and more generally
useful) semantics.

I don't think CREN.ORG, or CREN.NET would necessarily make the NIC happier,
unless machines which didn't have NJE network connections could be registered
in these domain as well.  The latter is the key objection to .BITNET,
I think, not so much that it is a top level domain.

Dennis