RFC 247

Proferred Set of Standard Host Names ✨

Okay bestie, let's get into it 💖 This is RFC 247, written by Peggy Karp of MITRE on 12 October 1971 (NIC 7688) 🎀. It's filed under Policy and Telnet 💅, it's related to #226, 236, 239, 233, and 237 🦋, and it obsoletes #226 👑. No updates here.

In RFC #226, BBN's TENEX list of Host names was set up as a strawman set of standard Host names 🧚. Then people actually wrote in with comments (an RFC got comments!!! iconic 😭), and those comments convinced Peggy to propose some general rules for forming Host names 🌸.

The Host names will be 8 characters long 💜. The general form is:

<site>  '-'  <machine>

Here's how the <site> part (at most 4 characters) gets made 🍓:

• (a) Use the keyword in the site name, if it's not more than four characters. Think NASA Ames or Case Western Reserve 🚀.
• (b) Use the standard acronym, if it's not more than four characters. Think UCLA, RADC, or NBS 🎓.
• (c) If a standard abbreviation exists, use it. Think Ill. 🌈
• (d) If none of the above apply, use the first four letters in the site name. Think Burr, Mitr, or Harv 🦋.
• (e) If none of that works for the site, the technical liaison picks the site mnemonic 🫶.

Now the <machine> part 🧚: it's at most 4 characters, in the form <mfg. #> followed by <designator> ✨. Some examples of mfg. # are:

IBM 360             2 digit model number
IBM 370             3 digit model number
PDP                 1 - 2 digit model number
Burroughs           4 digits
CDC                 4 digits
etc.

The <designator> gets used when more than one machine of the same type is at a site, like the 2 PDP-10s at MIT, at SRI, and at BBN 💻.

Okay, real talk: limiting <machine> to 4 characters means you can't tell apart machines that have 4-digit mfg. #s 😬. The author expects the NIC to deal with that in an ad hoc way if it ever comes up 🙈.

TIPs are called 'TIP' instead of '316' 💅. And if a Host isn't going to be permanently addressable, the machine is called 'TEST' 🧪.

A list of Host names made with these rules is attached 📜. Alternate Host names should be provided too, like Jon Postel suggested in RFC #236 ✨. RFCs 206, 233, and 236 have lists with 4-character alternate names 💜. The Technical Liaison picks the alternate name for their site and tells the NIC 🫶.

The rules above and the attached list are subject to NWG approval 🙏. From here on, the NIC will generate and maintain the list with each site's Technical Liaison, as RFC #237 suggested 🌟. Comments go to Dick Watson 💌.

---

[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]

[ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the ]

[ direction of Alex McKenzie. 12/96 ]

 NETWORK ADDRESS                 STANDARD NAME
 ---------------                 -------------
          1                      UCLA-7
         65                      UCLA-91
          2                      SRI-10NI
         66                      SRI-10AI
          3                      UCSB-75
          4                      UTAH-10
          5                      BBN-516
         69                      BBN-10A
        133                      BBN-10B
          6                      MIT-645
         70                      MIT-10DM
        134                      MIT-10AI
          7                      RAND-65
         71                      RAND-10
          8                      SDC-75
          9                      HARV-10
         73                      HARV-1
        137                      HARV-11
         10                      LL-67
         74                      LL-TX2
        138                      LL-TSP
         11                      SAIL-10
         12                      ILL-11
         76                      ILL-6500
         13                      CASE-10
         14                      CMU-10
         15                      BURR-6500
         79                      BURR-TEST
         16                      AMES-67
        144                      AMES-TIP
        145                      MITR-TIP
         18                      RADC-645
        146                      RADC-TIP
         19                      NBS-11
        147                      NBS-TIP
        148                      ETAC-TIP
         21                      TINK-418
         22                      MCCL-418
         23                      USC-44
        151                      USC-TIP
        152                      GWC-TIP
         25                      NCAR-7600
        153                      NCAR-TIP
        158                      BBNX-TEST

An Implementation Scheme 🎀

Okay, so if the standard Host names follow these rules, Steve Crocker suggested this implementation scheme 🧠. It can be used like this:

Map <site> into an 8-bit number, S and
map <machine> into an 8-bit number, M,
where
          S + M = Network Address.

S and M can be picked so that naming just the <site> could default you to the "primary" Host at that site 🦋. Note that this scheme depends on a unique <site> designator for each IMP 💅.

Some examples, because examples are everything 🌈:

If the "primary" Host at UCLA is the 91, let:

UCLA  -> S = X'41'
   7  -> M = X'40'
  91  -> M = X'00'

then for:

UCLA-7, S + M = X'01' = 1 base 10
UCLA-91,S + M = X'41' = 65 base 10

and:

UCLA alone = X'41' = 65 base 10

If the primary Host at BBN is TENEX System A, let:

BBN  ->  S = X'45'
516  ->  M = X'40'
10A  ->  M = X'00'
10B  ->  M = X'C0'

then for:

BBN-516, S + M = X'05' = 5 base 10
BBN-10A, S + M = X'45' = 69 base 10
BBN-10B, S + M = X'85' = 133 base 10

and:

BBN alone = X'45' = 69 base 10

Last thing 🫶: each IMP's primary Host gets designated by its site, and the NIC shares that info around 📣. Bye bestie 🦋💖