Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!texsun!convex!dpz@convex.com
From: dpz@convex.com (David Paul Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Naive questions about subnets & domains
Message-ID: <1536@convex.UUCP>
Date: 16 Aug 89 00:37:55 GMT
References: <1072@adobe.UUCP>
Sender: news@convex.UUCP
Lines: 49

You'll probably see a lot of similarities to your original in this reply...

Convex currently has an official domain name (convex.com), and MX forwarder
(uxc.cso.uiuc.edu), and an official class B network number (with 8 bit
subnets).  However, we are NOT currently a "connected network" -- we aren't on
the Internet for IP traffic.

We currently do have private IP connections to some of our remote
offices (e.g., CA, FL, MD) through various leased services.

Subnet answer: So far, our connected remote sites are subnets under our class
B, whether US or foreign.  Since I'm in Engineering, not MIS, I don't have
direct control over this, but hopefully (with a little nudging from me if
necessary :-) we can keep going in that direction.  I believe that subnets are
intended for topological groupings, so under that presumption, all the hosts
of your company would have addresses under your single class B.  If you've got
a lot, like Rutgers University does, but not enough to warrant a class A, you
may eventually have to go to multiple B networks.  How you deal with that is
pretty much up to you -- you probably could organize geographically by B
network, but I suspect that by the time you need the additional networks it
would be a major piece of work to pull off.

Distinct C network numbers can get to be more of a hassle than giving you
flexibility.  When I was at Rutgers, they had a remote net that was a class C,
and eventually redid them to be under their class B.  That net has since gone
forth and easily multiplied into a healthy number of subnets.  That is a
flexibility that you don't have when you have to get a class C allocated every
time you want to split or add a remote network or something.  Plus, it's a
waste of Internet network address mapping space if you've already got the
class B allocated.

Then again, Convex is only planning a single connection to the Internet, and
Rutgers didn't care if it played go-between for packets.  For multiple
connections, you could probably play routing protocol games to keep the
unwanted traffic off.  Haven't hacked routing protocols yet, so I can't say
how easy or hard this is.  It could just be a matter of telling your
routers-to-the-real-world to not advertise their knowledge to one another.

Domain answer: Our US sites are simply hosts as part of .convex.com, no
subdomains yet.  However, we do have a couple of remote sites in Europe, and
those just conform to the European geographical domains (.convex.oxford.ac.uk,
.convex.nl).  They're not on our network yet, so we get to them via UUCP.  You
can probably get more information about this whole issue from Piet Beertema
(piet@cwi.nl), who handles the European UUCP maps.

						David

David Paul Zimmerman                                             dpz@convex.com
CONVEX Computer Corp                                                 convex!dpz