[ih] Pre-1997 TLD manager records
John Gilmore
gnu at toad.com
Thu May 7 17:41:41 PDT 2026
Nigel Roberts via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> What I would particularly like to document is how domain registration records(which included ALL domains at this point) arrived at NSI, and in what form.
> And go back further in time, if I can.
You can.
Here is how toad.com was registered, which was one of the first 100 .com
domain names. It was all done by sending structured ascii emails to
HOSTMASTER at SRI-NIC.ARPA. It's not a TLD, I'm sorry if that was all that
you were interested in.
This registration was done by the SRI-NIC (at the former Stanford
Research Institute). This was before the tiny minority business Network
Solutions won the fixed-price annual contract to manage the DNS. And
long before Network Solutions was acquired for peanuts by greedhead
beltway bandit SAIC, which immediately started illegally charging every
domain user annually (or canceling their domain name if they wouldn't
pay). And long before SAIC sold Network Solutions stock to the public
during the Internet bubble and then transferred the hundreds of millions
in proceeds directly back to SAIC (which has no stockholders other than
its own employees). DNS administration has been a racket ever since,
after SAIC showed the unscrupulous how to do it.
John
Return-Path: gnu
Return-Path: <gnu>
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Date: Wed, 5 Aug 87 23:56:34 PDT
From: gnu (John Gilmore)
Message-Id: <8708060656.AA23500 at hoptoad.uucp>
To: uunet!rick
Subject: Re: Internet domain name for hoptoad
[ NETINFO:DOMAIN-TEMPLATE.TXT ] [ 2/87, DBDOC ]
To establish a domain, the following information must be provided to
the NIC Domain Registrar (HOSTMASTER at SRI-NIC.ARPA):
Note: The key people must have computer mail mailboxes and
NIC "Handles", unique NIC database identifiers. If they do not
at present, please remedy the situation at once. A NIC Handle may
be established by contacting REGISTRAR at SRI-NIC.ARPA.
1) The name of the top level domain to join.
COM
2) The name, title, mailing address, phone number, and organization
of the administrative head of the organization. This is the contact
point for administrative and policy questions about the domain. In
the case of a research project, this should be the Principal
Investigator. The online mailbox and NIC Handle of this person should
also be included.
Administrator
Organization Nebula Consultants
Name John Gilmore
Title
Mail Address PO Box 170608
San Francisco, CA 94117
Phone Number +1 415 221 6524
Net Mailbox hoptoad!gnu at uunet.uu.net
NIC Handle PENDING
3) The name, title, mailing address, phone number, and organization
of the domain technical contact. The online mailbox and NIC Handle of
the domain technical contact should also be included. This is the
contact point for problems with the domain and for updating
information about the domain. Also, the domain technical contact may
be responsible for hosts in this domain.
Organization Nebula Consultants
Name John Gilmore
Title
Mail Address PO Box 170608
San Francisco, CA 94117
Phone Number +1 415 221 6524
Net Mailbox hoptoad!gnu at uunet.uu.net
NIC Handle PENDING
4) The name, title, mailing address, phone number, and organization
of the zone technical contact. The online mailbox and NIC Handle of
the zone technical contact should also be included. This is the
contact point for problems with the zone and for updating information
about the zone. In many cases the zone technical contact and the
domain technical contact will be the same person.
Organization Nebula Consultants
Name John Gilmore
Title
Mail Address PO Box 170608
San Francisco, CA 94117
Phone Number +1 415 221 6524
Net Mailbox hoptoad!gnu at uunet.uu.net
NIC Handle PENDING
5) The name of the domain (up to 12 characters). This is the name
that will be used in tables and lists associating the domain and the
domain server addresses. [While technically domain names can be
quite long (programmers beware), shorter names are easier for people
to cope with.]
TOAD
6) A description of the servers that provides the domain service for
translating name to address for hosts in this domain, and the date
they will be operational.
We will be running the BIND software as provided by UC Berkeley.
The servers are currently operational.
7) Domains should provide at least two independent servers for the
domain. A description of the server machine and its back-up, including:
Primary:
Sequent Balance 2100 and UNIX
uunet.UU.NET 192.12.141.129 on CSS-ETHER
Secondary:
Sun 3/160 and UNIX
seismo.CSS.GOV 192.12.141.25 on CSS-ETHER
8) Planned mapping of names of any other network hosts, other than
the server machines, into the new domain's naming space.
none
9) Delegation for networks in your domain for inclusion in the
IN-ADDR.ZONE files, and the fully qualified domain names for the
IN-ADDR server sites for each network. (If the IN-ADDR servers
are omitted, the servers specified for the domain will be used
as the default when the IN-ADDR.ZONE file is generated.)
This domain will not be directly connected to the internet,
so the IN-ADDR.ARPA domain is not applicable.
10) An estimate of the number of hosts that will be in the domain.
(a) initially = 3
(b) one year = 4
(c) two years = 10
(d) five years = 10
11) A date when you expect the fully qualified domain name to
become the official host name in HOSTS.TXT.
The host name should never appear in host.txt. MX records
to forward mail off the internet will be established.
Return-Path: gnu
Return-Path: <gnu>
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Date: Tue, 11 Aug 87 23:03:25 PDT
From: gnu (John Gilmore)
Message-Id: <8708120603.AA09612 at hoptoad.uucp>
To: fischer at sri-nic.arpa
Subject: NIC Handle application
FULL NAME: John Gilmore
U.S. MAIL ADDRESS: PO Box 170608, SF, CA 94117
PHONE: +1 415 931 4667
AUTHORIZING HOST: uunet.uu.net
PRIMARY LOGIN NAME: gnu
PRIMARY NETWORK MAILBOX: gnu at hop.toad.com (domain assignment pending)
MILNET TAC ACCESS? (y/n): y
TERMINATION DATE: none
HANDLE: none yet
Return-Path: FISCHER at SRI-NIC.ARPA
Return-Path: <FISCHER at SRI-NIC.ARPA>
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Date: Fri 14 Aug 87 12:58:28-PDT
From: Nancy Fischer <FISCHER at SRI-NIC.ARPA>
Subject: Re: NIC Handle application
To: hoptoad!gnu
Cc: FISCHER at SRI-NIC.ARPA, REGISTRAR at SRI-NIC.ARPA
In-Reply-To: <8708120603.AA09612 at hoptoad.uucp>
Message-Id: <12326491198.14.FISCHER at SRI-NIC.ARPA>
We have registered you and assigned a handle - JG150.
Nancy
-------
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 87 15:02:57 EDT
From: uunet!seismo.CSS.GOV!rick (Rick Adams)
To: hoptoad!gnu
Subject: [toad.com domain registration at SRI-NIC] the wheels continue to slowly turn...
From DEBRA at sri-nic.arpa Tue Aug 18 12:00:57 1987
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Date: Tue 18 Aug 87 09:00:31-PDT
From: HOSTMASTER at sri-nic.arpa
Subject: Re: domain registration form
Sender: DEBRA at sri-nic.arpa
To: rick at seismo.CSS.GOV
Cc: HOSTMASTER at sri-nic.arpa
Reply-To: HOSTMASTER at sri-nic.arpa
In-Reply-To: <8708112029.AA13339 at beno.CSS.GOV>
Message-Id: <12327496458.16.DEBRA at SRI-NIC.ARPA>
Rick,
This is to let you know that we have registered the TOAD.COM domain. It
will take a few days before the root servers are updated, but feel free
at that time to query it to verify the information.
Debra
-------
I'll let you know when it really exists.
---rick
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