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In many cases, you will want to use an existing domain, such as the one already assigned to your public library, governmental unit, or civic organization. In other cases, you may want to obtain a new domain just for your new community networking project. The choice is entirely up to you.
You may need to work with more than one domain administrator if you wish to assign multiple names to a server. For instance, suppose the Ann Arbor Public Library houses a server for information about that community. Within the library’s existing domain of ann-arbor.lib.mi.us, the server might be assigned an address of server3.ann-arbor.lib.mi.us.
For a name appropriate for a community information site, the library would want a name more meaningful to the public. The library might choose AnnArborInfo.org (which would mean contacting Network Solutions or one of the new registrars of the .org domain). Or, the library might choose www.ci.ann-arbor.mi.us – which would mean contacting the administrator of the ann-arbor.mi.us domain. We find out who serves as the administrator of the ann-arbor.mi.us domain by consulting the list at www.isi.edu/in-notes/us-domain-delegated.txt which tells us the right place to send our e-mail request is: us-domain@i-theta.com.
What if you wish to register a new domain, and you find that it is already in use? For instance, suppose you want to register smallville.org, and you learn that someone in another town named Smallville in another state has already registered that domain? Once a domain name has been registered by another party, it can be difficult to wrest it away, unless someone has an existing trademark that has been infringed by the registrant. Therefore, it’s a good idea to register a domain name as soon as you concoct it, even if you don’t plan to deploy a Web site within that domain immediately. You can always deploy a site under the choice domain at a later date.
Within your domain, how you name your servers is pretty much a matter of your own taste and desires. However, functional names are a popular and reasonable approach. For instance, if you run e-mail services on a separate server, a server name of mail.smallville.org would make sense. Your database server might be database.smallville.org. Different conventions may be used for servers that are used only by your staff, such as internal servers or desktop computers.
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