RFC 1811

RFC 1811: U.S. Government Internet Domain Names ✨

Okay bestie, this one is from the Federal Networking Council 🏛️ It's in the Network Working Group series, it's dated June 1995, and it's Category: Informational 🌸 It's RFC 1811. The header doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates, so it's not replacing or changing any other RFC 🦋

Status of This Memo 🌈

This memo gives information to the Internet community 💖 It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind, so it's not a standard, not even a little. Distribution is unlimited, so share it with everyone 🫶

Abstract 💜

Okay so this doc lays out the registration rules for the top-level domain .GOV 🇺🇸 Until now, federal agencies and their subsidiaries have been registering with zero guidance 💀 That led to multiple registrations for the same agency and naming schemes that make it harder for the public to reach them. This fixes it by limiting registrations to match the approved structure of the US government 👑

The document it cites, FIPS 95-1, provides a standard recognized structure that domain registrations for top-level domains fit into 🧚 The IANA requires that an organization or 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 👑

Here's the main event. The .GOV domain is delegated from the root authority to the US Federal Networking Council 🏛️ It's for registering US governmental entities at the federal level only. State and local governmental agencies SHALL be made under the .US domain, following 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. This is your source of truth bestie 📚
   • 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-indented listings unless prohibited below) as listed in this document are eligible for registration directly under .GOV. ✨
   • B) Autonomous law enforcement components of top-level entities (e.g., "Federal Bureau of Investigation", "Secret Service", "Coast Guard") are also eligible for registration. 🔥
   • C) Cross-agency collaborative organizations (e.g., "Federal Networking Council", "Information Infrastructure Task Force") are eligible for registration under .GOV upon presentation of the chartering document. They're the only non-FIPS-listed organizations eligible for registration under .GOV 👑
   • D) Subsidiary, non-autonomous components of top-level or other entities are not eligible for separate registration. International organizations listed in this document are NOT eligible for registration under .GOV 🙈
   • E) Organizations listed as "Federally Aided Organizations" are not eligible for registration under .GOV and SHOULD register under .ORG or other appropriate top-level domain. 🍓
   • F) Organizations subsidiary to "Department of Defense" MUST register under the ".MIL" domain via the Defense Data Network Network Information Center. Contact registrar@nic.ddn.mil 💜

The only standard exceptions to these rules are changes to governmental structure due to statutory, regulatory or executive directives not yet reflected in the above document. The requesting agency SHOULD provide documentation in one of the above forms to request an exception. Other requests for exception SHOULD be referred to the Federal Networking Council 🫶

2. A domain name SHOULD be derived from the official name for the organization (e.g., "USDA.Gov" or "Agriculture.GOV".) The registration SHALL be listed in the registration database under the official name (per FIPS 95-1) for the organization, or under the name in the chartering document 🌸
3. Only ONE registration and delegation SHALL be made per agency 🔥 The .GOV registration authority SHALL provide registrations on a first-come first-served basis. It's an individual agency matter as to which portion of the agency is responsible for managing the domain space under a delegated agency domain 💅
4. Those agencies and entities that have multiple registrations under .GOV MAY retain them for a maximum of 3 years from the publication date of this document. Within 6 months after the publication of this document, one primary domain MUST be selected for the agency. The other (secondary) domains MUST cease further sub-delegations and registrations at this time.

Here's the timeline, bestie ⏳ As of 1 year after the publication of this document, the secondary domains will become undelegated and will revert to the control of the .GOV owner. As of 2 years after the publication of this document, all registrations in the secondary domains MUST be mirrored in the primary domain, and those names SHOULD be used where possible. At the 3 year point, all secondary domain registrations will be deleted 💀

5. Those agencies and entities already registered in .GOV but not listed in FIPS 95-1 (e.g., DOE labs, state entities) MAY retain their registration within the constraint of the single registration rule (see para 4). No further non-FIPS-listed registrations will be made. State and local entities are strongly encouraged to re-register under .US, but this is not mandatory 🌈

References 📚

[1] Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 95-1 (FIPS PUB 95-1, "Codes for the Identification of Feral and Federally Assisted Organizations", U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, January 4, 1993. (Yes, "Feral" is in the original title, not a typo of mine 🙈)

[2] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation", RFC 1591, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1994.

Security Considerations 🔒

Security issues are not discussed in this memo. 💀 Spicy, I know, but that's what it says, so take it seriously bestie.

Author's Address 🦋

Federal Networking Council
4001 N. Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203

Phone: (703) 522-6410
EMail: execdir@fnc.gov
URL:  http://www.fnc.gov