INTERNET DRAFT          EXPIRES SEPT 1998               INTERNET DRAFT
                                                               R. Nelson
INTERNET DRAFT                                           Crynwr Software
Updates: RFC 1178, 1035                                         Feb 1998
Category: Informational

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Domain names for part-time Internet hosts
<draft-rfced-info-nelson-00.txt>

Status of This Memo

This document is an Internet-Draft.  Internet-Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its
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Distribution of this document is unlimited.


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Observations

Several large providers use subdomains for their dialups, but no
subdomain is popular enough to be recognizable.  This memo standardizes
the names of Internet hosts which are not connected to the Internet at
all times.  One of the domains of these host's names should contain
"dialup".  Since there are several second-level names which match
"dialup", the matching should start at the third-level name.  A
reasonable algorithm would be to search for "dialup", then expect to
find two dots following that occurrance.  A simple regular expression
such as is used by the Unix search command might be "dialup.*\\..*\\.".

The string "dialup" is chosen because it is not likely to be used in
the name of any host which is not a dialup.  It is also already in use
by several large providers.

This shows the current variety of dialup names chosen by various
providers:

 .hil.compuserve.com
 .arl.compuserve.com
 .willowsprings.mci.net
 .voor.prodigy.net
 .ms.uu.net
 .da.uu.net
 .dial-access.att.net
 .dialup.canada.psi.net
 .pub-ip.psi.net
 .ipt.aol.com
 .us.ibm.net
 .dialup.earthlink.net

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Security Considerations

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Dialup hosts are inherently less secure than full-time-connected
hosts.  Some sites may wish to deny certain services (e.g. SMTP) from
part-time-connected hosts.  This standard gives them a tool that scales.

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References

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[1] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and specification", RFC 1035, November 1987
[2] Libes, D., "Choosing a Name for Your Computer", RFC 1178, September, 1990

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Author's Address

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Russell Nelson
Crynwr Software
 Pleasant Valley Rd.
Potsdam, NY 13676

Phone: +1.315.268.1925
FAX:   +1.315.268.9201

Email: nelson@crynwr.com



INTERNET DRAFT          EXPIRES SEPT 1998               INTERNET DRAFT