RFC 1816 (rfc1816) - Page 1 of 8
U
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group Federal Networking Council
Request For Comments: 1816 August 1995
Obsoletes: 1811
Category: Informational
U.S. Government Internet Domain Names
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This memo provides an update and clarification to RFC 1811. This
document describes the registration policies for the top-level domain
".GOV". Thus far, Federal Agencies and their subsidiaries have
registered without any guidance. This has resulted in multiple
registrations for Federal Agencies and naming schemes that do not
facilitate responsiveness to the public. This document fixes this by
restricting registrations to coincide with the approved structure of
the US government. The document cited, FIPS 95-1, provides a
standard recognized structure into which domain registrations for
.GOV can be fit. This policy is exactly comparable to that for the
top-level domains. The IANA requires that an organization/country
apply for and get a 2 letter code from ISO/ITU (e.g., US for United
States) for additional top-level registration.
As a side effect, this reduces the number of .GOV level registrations
and reduces the workload on the Internic.
U.S. GOVERNMENT INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES POLICY
The .GOV domain is delegated from the root authority to the US
Federal Networking Council. The .GOV domain is for registration of
US governmental entities on the federal level only. Registrations
for state and local governmental agencies shall be made under the .US
domain in accordance with the policies for that domain.
1) The document "Codes for the Identification of Federal and
Federally Assisted Organizations", FIPS 95-1 (or its successor)
lists the official names of US Government agencies.
A) Top-level entities (e.g., those with codes ending in 00 such as
"1200 Department of Agriculture"), and independent agencies and
organizations (e.g., "National Science Foundation and other non-
Federal Networking Council Informational