Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!VCUVAX.BITNET!LANGFORD
From: LANGFORD@VCUVAX.BITNET (Bob Langford)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: How many levels should a domain-style name have?
Message-ID: <8805180042.AA07446@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 16 May 88 16:32:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 22

Hi, I've got a question about domain naming schemes.

We're hooking up a university-wide network using IP/TCP, which will
soon be connected to SURAnet/NSFnet.  Naturally, we want to set up some
domain-style names for our systems, but we're having some disagreements
about how many levels the names should have, i.e., RUBY.VCU.EDU vs
RUBY.MCV.VCU.EDU (no one thinks we need 5 levels!)  We will have about
10 "large" hosts (>10 users), about 5-10 small hosts (1-2 user Suns)
and dozens of Macintoshes or PCs connected on subnets.  Many people here
want 3 level names for ease of remembering, others want 4 level names for
distributed naming (node addresses will be assigned by distributed means,
not a central authority).  Some months ago, someone suggested assigning
nodes 4 level names, but also providing a 3 level "alias" for the most
popular systems.  Is this wise and/or feasible?  What do most places do?

(Extra info:  most of our computers are Pyramids using UNIX, with a few
Sun 3/xxx systems, and a VAX/VMS system running Wollongong software.)

      Bob Langford
      MCV Academic Computing
      Virginia Commonwealth University
      (804) 786-9843
      Bitnet:  LANGFORD @ VCUVAX