RFC 1591 (rfc1591) - Page 2 of 7

Domain Name System Structure and Delegation

RFC 1591      Domain Name System Structure and Delegation     March 1994


   Each of the generic TLDs was created for a general category of
   organizations.  The country code domains (for example, FR, NL, KR,
   US) are each organized by an administrator for that country.  These
   administrators may further delegate the management of portions of the
   naming tree.  These administrators are performing a public service on
   behalf of the Internet community.  Descriptions of the generic
   domains and the US country domain follow.

   Of these generic domains, five are international in nature, and two
   are restricted to use by entities in the United States.

   World Wide Generic Domains:

   COM - This domain is intended for commercial entities, that is
         companies.  This domain has grown very large and there is
         concern about the administrative load and system performance if
         the current growth pattern is continued.  Consideration is
         being taken to subdivide the COM domain and only allow future
         commercial registrations in the subdomains.

   EDU - This domain was originally intended for all educational
         institutions.  Many Universities, colleges, schools,
         educational service organizations, and educational consortia
         have registered here.  More recently a decision has been taken
         to limit further registrations to 4 year colleges and
         universities.  Schools and 2-year colleges will be registered
         in the country domains (see US Domain, especially K12 and CC,
         below).

   NET - This domain is intended to hold only the computers of network
         providers, that is the NIC and NOC computers, the
         administrative computers, and the network node computers.  The
         customers of the network provider would have domain names of
         their own (not in the NET TLD).

   ORG - This domain is intended as the miscellaneous TLD for
         organizations that didn't fit anywhere else.  Some non-
         government organizations may fit here.

   INT - This domain is for organizations established by international
         treaties, or international databases.

   United States Only Generic Domains:

   GOV - This domain was originally intended for any kind of government
         office or agency.  More recently a decision was taken to
         register only agencies of the US Federal government in this
         domain.  State and local agencies are registered in the country



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