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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!hc!beta!cmcl2!rutgers!sunybcs!boulder!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!mtune!codas!killer!billw
From: billw@killer.UUCP (Bill Wisner)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: determining domain type
Message-ID: <1885@killer.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Oct-87 17:13:09 EST
Article-I.D.: killer.1885
Posted: Thu Oct 22 17:13:09 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 14:17:11 EST
References: <5533@sgistl.SGI.COM>
Reply-To: billw@killer.UUCP (Bill Wisner)
Organization: HASA
Lines: 18
Keywords: uucp mail sendmail
Xref: mnetor comp.mail.misc:626 comp.mail.uucp:897

There are, basically, two groups of top-level domains. The first are pretty
obsolete, and are simply the name of the network that machine is on. The site
I'm posting this from, killer.UUCP, is on USENET exclusively. Similarly,
foo.ARPA denotes an ARPA Internet site, and foo.BITNET means that the machine
is on bitnet.

Domains now are more descriptive. The "real" type of domain is something like
sgistl.SGI.COM -- the machine is sgistl, it is at SGI, and SGI is a COMpany.
Other top-level domains are .EDU for Universities (EDUcational institution)
and .ORG for organizations. Foreign sites use the country abbreviation for
the top-level domain, i.e. .UK for the United Kingdom. The big advantage
with this type of site domain name is that it is the same regardless of how
many networks a machine is on; a message sent to aramis.rutgers.edu is likely
to arrive whether send from a UUCP-only site with smail or an Internet-only
site with sendmail.
-- 
Bill Wisner, HASA 'A' Division		..ihnp4!killer!billw
"It's the coarse feel of the rope that I don't like."