Online Services

Procedure for Requesting Domain Name Service on the UUA Web Server

• Second Level Domain Name Service (e.g. beacon.org) will be granted only in limited circumstances at the sole discretion of the UUA Director of Electronic Communication, oecdirector@uua.org .
• Third Level Domain Name Service may be granted by the Director of Electronic Communication to Districts (e.g. pswd.uua.org), Publications (e.g. world.uua.org), Associate and Affiliate organizations of the UUA (e.g. cuups.uua.org), and the Church of the Larger Fellowship. Departments of the UUA will not normally be granted third level domain name service.
• Fourth or Fifth level Domain Name Service may be granted by the Director of Electronic Communication to Congregations of the UUA. (e.g. uc.losalamos.uua.org)

Subdomain Name Service for UUA Affiliated Organizations

Domain names on the Internet are meant to be used in an hierarchical manner. Top-level names (like .COM, .EDU, .ORG, etc.) are preceded by registered domain names (like UUA for UUA.ORG, our Association's domain name). Registered domain nameholders have authority and control over the namespace under their name. We can use that namespace to issue our own subdomain names. E.g., the Pacific Northwest District has successfully applied for -- and is using -- the PNWD.UUA.ORG subdomain.

The advantages of the PNWD applying for a UUA.ORG subdomain name rather than their own second-level name from the NIC (e.g. PNWD-UU.ORG) are these: (1) It gives us a common, easily-identifiable, cohesive, logical structure. (2) It puts the coordination of our delegated namespace where it belongs, instead of turning to a governmental contractholder each time changes need to be made. (3) It is appropriate and suggested by the InterNIC, and this sort of delegated namespace use is common on the 'Net.

When applications for subdomain names in the UUA.ORG domain are received, name service will be provided for those subdomains requiring it with the appropriate zone files on the UUA.ORG server; and secondary domain name service will be provided (as required under Internet RFCs) on another server to be named, which would not be on the same premises nor on the same network connection as the UUA.ORG machine (to maximize redundancy and visibility). The UUA will administer and coordinate these subdomains in such a way as to assist divisions and congregations with their Internet naming needs under the UUA.ORG domain. Reach the appropriate person at hostmaster@uua.org.

The criterion for receiving subdomain nameservice on uua.org is that the applying organization have a listing in the UUA directory. The intent is to provide the service to all interested uu churches, districts, and affiliated organizations. Any exceptions to these criteria will be referred to the UUA for consideration.

This service will be provided on a no-charge basis, and undertaken at regularly-scheduled times during each week (usually on Fridays) so as to "batch" all of the changes into twice-weekly modification sessions.

In order to facilitate this service, all domain name request should be sent to hostmaster@uua.org . A simple, brief, form is provided below for applicants to complete and submit. Applications received prior to the twice-weekly batch processing will be processed and implemented at that time, and acknowledgements will be sent to applicants, as appropriate.

Following are specific guidelines for name service via uua.org:

1. The uua.org domain shall provide primary name service for districts, congregations, and organizations affiliated with the UUA.
    
2. Any <district|state|province|affiliate> may apply for a name of the (corresponding) form

<district|state|province|affiliate>.uua.org
e.g. "pnwd.uua.org" for the Pacific Northwest District;
or   "uumn.uua.org" for the UU Musicians Network;

3. Local congregations shall be assigned names of the form
   
   <congregation>.<district|state|province>.uua.org
   e.g. "northlake.pnwd.uua.org" for the Northlake Church in the PNW district;

   or <congregation>.<city>.<district|state|province>.uua.org
   e.g. "firstuu.kent.wa.uua.org" for First UU Church in Kent, WA.
   
   or <congregation>.<city>.uua.org
   e.g. "firstuu.boston.uua.org" for First UU in Boston, MA.

4. Organizations shall be assigned multiple acceptable names if they so request.
    
5. Requests for domain names shall be sent to hostmaster@uua.org. In the event a request is not clearly from a UUA affiliated organization, i.e. one that is not listed in the current UUA directory, the request shall be referred to the UUA for consideration.

Item 1. A domain name is not an email address, and this is perhaps the greatest area of misunderstanding about what it is and is not. The UUA does not provide the hosting of email under the top-level uua.org domain name.

Item 2. A secondary domain name implies (1) an Internet Protocol (IP) host address, and/or (2) information for a mail exchange (MX) record. A name cannot be provided which points to nothing, or provides nothing.

Item 3. The UUA is not charging for any domain name services. In this way, the annual $50 fee levied by the InterNIC may be avoided, as the administration of our own namespace does not involve any administrative load at the InterNIC. If you have questions or require additional information, please email the UUA Hostmaster at hostmaster@uua.org .

If you've read all of the above and agree to the terms and want to request secondary domain name service from the UUA, please complete and email this form:

Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St. | Boston, MA 02108 | 617-742-2100