Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!apple!bionet!lear From: lear@NET.BIO.NET (Eliot Lear) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Why use a domain? Message-ID: Date: 6 Oct 88 06:13:40 GMT References: <137@microsoft.UUCP> <5673@zodiac.UUCP> Organization: Natl Computer Resource for Mol. Biologists Lines: 21 Essentially, Jordan is right, although I wish he would be a little more verbose in his answers. In a perfect world, the domain system would handle all hosts without .UUCP. That is a goal for which we should work. There are essentially three benefits of using real domains over .UUCP: 1] Beyond the name, you gain some additional piece of information. Right now, that information either indicates structural organization such as educational, military, etc., or a location such as asylum.sf.ca.us. I am told that it is a bad idea to expect any *real* information in that name, but never-the-less... 2] It increases the name space. There can only be one foo.UUCP, but there can be a foo.rutgers.edu and a foo.berkeley.edu, etc. 3] Most importantly, it is accepted that domain names are absolute, unlike UUCP, where some circles still argue the point. -- Eliot Lear [lear@net.bio.net]