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