The University depends on external network interconnectivity with research and education institutions and to the Internet for its research, teaching and learning, outreach and administration activities. The use of public IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and Internet domain names both allows interconnectivity between the University and external information services, and identifies the University in “cyberspace”. For this access to be efficient and effective, sufficient public IP addresses need to be provided and a unified, consistent domain name service needs to be maintained. The domain name registration process places obligations on the University to adhere to external policies (from controlling organisations such as auDA) and involves the use of University legal identifiers. Additionally, there are potential reputation and legal impacts on the use of the University’s allocated IP address space and naming associations within its domain name which need to be addressed.

The following principles for Internet domain naming and for the allocation of addresses within the University’s public IP address space apply:

• The University has licensed the 3rd Level Domain (3LD) anu.edu.au which is registered with auDA under the Closed .edu.au 2nd Level Domain (2LD).
• The University has been allocated public IP address ranges by APNIC and adheres to APNIC policies and guidelines.
•  The University allocates IP addresses to the University Community and to non-ANU Entities in conformance with APNIC principles of uniqueness, area aggregation, conservation and fairness.
• All servers supporting one or more services that are provided by members of the University Community as part of their official functions and as part of the business of the University must have domain names registered within the anu.edu.au domain for each service offered.
• Domain names within the anu.edu.au domain are to be registered with the University’s DNS name server either as a 5th Level Domain name (5LD) or, in some cases, a 4th Level Domain name (4LD) depending on the scope of services being offered.
•  Budget Unit network connecting devices have domain names allocated at the 5LD in the general form “[hostname].[budget unit identifier].anu.edu.au”, where [budget unit identifier] can be College, Research School, Centre or Administration Division identifiers and, where applicable, use generally accepted Internet community conventions, such as “www.[ budget unit identifier].anu.edu.au” or “ftp.[ budget unit identifier].anu.edu.au”.
• Wherever possible, the auDA principle of “first come, first serve” allocation of domain names will be applied by the University’s Hostmaster within the anu.edu.au domain and other approved domain names.
• Approved domain names must conform to auDA’s naming rules for unacceptable names and must not contravene trademarks or copyrights.
• The University reserves the right to rescind and reuse domain names for new and more appropriate University purposes.
• 4LD domain names which are of the form “[hostname].anu.edu.au” are approved by the University subject to the following criteria:
  • services are general to the University or common to the University Community, eg “www.anu.edu.au”.
  • The proposed name is for a consortium of many different groups within the University.
  • The proposed name is the name of a service and not the name of a Budget Unit.
  • Existing 4LD’s which do not meet these criteria are grandfathered for the life of the particular service only.
• The University allows the use of domain names outside the anu.edu.au domain, subject to the following criteria:
  • The domain name must be registered with a domain registrar within the open 2LD at the 3rd Level which satisfies the auDA 2LD criteria ([hostname].com.au, [hostname].net.au or [hostname].org.au).
  • Any hosts supporting services that are provided by members of the University Community, but that are outside their official functions or outside the business of the University must use domain names outside the anu.edu.au domain, however, within the University’s allocated IP address ranges.
  • The proposed name is not likely to be confused with the name of a University Budget Unit.
  • The proposed name
    • signifies an organization or venture, commercial or non-commercial, that is not explicitly part of the University; or
    • is for a project with external funding which is obligated to show this identification for Internet access; or
    • is used by many people from many different organizations outside the University.
  • The University approves the use of the ANU’s ABN for the registration.
  • Individual members of the University community are not allocated University IP addresses for the purposes of registering domain names in the .id.au open domain (or in attempting to register in any other open 2LD).
  • Further registration in overseas domains, in particular, the .com domain are allowed where the naming is for commercially strategic use or for international recognition.
• All domain names requiring registration by auDA are to satisfy both auDA naming rules and the Use of the University Name and Insignia Policy.
• All host names and aliases are to conform to the auDA’s naming rules for unacceptable names and are not to contravene trademarks or copyrights.
• CNAME recordsfor virtual domain naming of virtual hosts or the customised naming of URL’s on University or Budget Unit main servers must have alias names aligned to the naming hierarchy of the main server’s domain name.
• In some instances, the University may determine a need to register domains, including those in the .com top-level domain, 2LD, to protect the ANU brand to prevent cybersquatting.
• The University allows the sub-delegation of DNS services to Budget Units where workstation management at the 5LD requires local name servicing.
• Non-ANU Entities which are allocated University IP Addresses must register separate domain names outside the anu.edu.au domain.

Relevant External Licence and Policy Obligations:

auDA for .au domain space licensing and policies.

AICTEC and eDAC for .edu.au domain space licensing and policies.

APNIC for IP Address allocations and policies.

University Responsibilities

1. The University is responsible for:

1.1 registering and maintaining anu.edu.au as the University’s principle Internet domain name and 3rd Level Domain (3LD).

1.2 licensing sufficient IP addresses to continually meet the University’s Internet access, networking and device naming requirements.

1.3 efficiently managing the University’s IP address space to the University Community and to non-ANU Entities, which includes allocating additional addresses where needed and recovering unused addresses.

1.4 registering other 3LD domain names approved by the University, and ensuring a controlled use of the University’s legal identity in the registration and licensing processes.

1.5 approving all 4LD domain names within the anu.edu.au domain and ensuring appropriate use of the University’s 4LD.

1.6 ensuring all 5LD and any higher domain names within the anu.edu.au domain for the use by the University Community meet naming standards.

1.7 resolving any naming conflicts between Budget Units.

1.8 managing the University’s authoritative DNS service and Hostmaster function.

1.9 approving any domain name to be hosted on the University's name server and registration of all domain names on the University’s name server.

1.10 approving any delegations of local DNS services to Budget Units.

1.11 approving use of the University’s IP address to non-ANU Entities and allocating sufficient IP addresses to non-ANU Entities.

User Responsibilities

 2. Heads of Budget Units are responsible for:

2.1 naming local area hostnames, domain names (typically in the 5LD) and aliases in conformance with auDA naming policies.

2.2 resolving local area domain names to IP addresses allocated for their Budget Unit’s use.

2.3 efficiently managing allocated IP address ranges allocated for their Budget Unit’s use.

2.4 managing any delegated local DNS services and DNS service availability targets sufficient for their Budget Unit’s business continuity.

3. Authorised users must:

3.1 seek Head of Budget Unit approval before applying to register domain names.

3.2 not register domain names in the id.au 2LD using University IP addresses and not seek to place such domain names on the University’s name server.

4. Non-ANU Entities must:

4.1 use non-anu.edu.au domains and domain names within the University’s IP address space and which conform to the auDA naming rules.

4.2 not use or seek to use the University’s legal identity, in particular, its ABN in registering its domain name.

4.3 select domain names and aliases that meet the auDA naming and licensing requirements and which are not likely to be confused with the University or a University Budget Unit.

Authorisation

The University responsibilities identified in this Policy are vested with the Division of Information.

Definitions

AICTEC: Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee manages the closed second level domain (2LD) .edu.au.

APNIC: Asia Pacific Network Information Centre is responsible for the assignment of public IP addresses in the Region. APNIC set policies for IP address assignment to ensure global uniqueness, address space aggregation, conservation and fairness.

auDA: .au Domain Administration Limited. auDA is the overarching policy authority and industry self-regulating body endorsed by the Australian Government to administer and manage the “.au” domain space

Authorised user: is a person defined under Rule 6 of the Information Infrastructure and Services Rules, 2006, and includes University staff, students, Visitors with a currently active user account.

Authoritative DNS service: The primary name server which holds the authoritative domain’s database (called ns1 for the anu.edu.au domain). It propagates information about the University’s domain names and systems to the Internet. Official secondary servers are also configured for redundancy and load balancing.

CNAME record: means the canonical name record which is a DNS record that assigns an alias to the true (canonical) name of the server.

Domain Name: is the unique name by which a network connecting device is known to the Internet. In this Policy a domain name refers to named network connecting devices in the University’s authoritative DNS service and to which University IP addresses resolve. For Internet identity, the form of a domain name includes the hostname and the parent domain name. A domain name has a hierarchy of suffixes which identify the host service and the domain in which the domain name is registered, eg, “www.anu.edu.au” is the University’s web server, which is within the 3rd Level “anu” domain, which is within the 2nd Level “.edu.au” closed domain, which, in turn is within the “.au” top level domain. A domain name may have one or more IP addresses and more than one domain name can be mapped to the same IP address.

DNS: Domain Name System is a hierarchical grouping of hosts based on domain levels. In Australia, the first level domain is .au. This is divided into a number of second level domains (2LDs), such as com.au, net.au, org.au, asn.au, id.au, gov.au and edu.au. The creation and registration of domain names occurs at the third level (3LD), for example, anu.edu.au.

DNS Server: resolves host names to IP addresses (either directly or through the hierarchy) and locally holds a database of hosts and IP addresses within its domain to allow the Internet Protocol to create, route and interconnect these local hosts to any other host on the Internet.

Heads of Budget Units: includes College Conveners, Deans and Directors of Faculties, Schools and Centres, and Directors of Administration and Information Divisions, as defined in the Delegations of Authority Policy.

Hostmaster: manages the University’s authoritative domain’s database and DNS server and University secondary name servers, the allocation of domains and host names, and the assignment of the University’s public IP addresses within the University Community and to non-ANU Entities.

Hostname: is the unique name of a network connecting device, which has a unique MAC address. Where the network connecting device provides services to the Internet, it is registered in the University’s name server and is equivalent to the domain name of the network connecting device, ie, the name can resolve to a University IP address. Note: one host may have more then one domain name if it is providing a number of separate Internet access services.

Network access: means access to the University’s Integrated Communications Network (ICN), which supports the University’s data, voice and video resources, services and applications.

Network connecting devices: include servers, storage devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, printers, scanners, photocopiers, personal computing devices and other computing devices with networking interfaces capable of connecting to the ICN.

Non-ANU Entity: is a separate legal entity to the ANU and, for the purposes of this Policy, has a presence within the University boundary. It therefore requires, as a minimum, access to the ICN and an allocation of the University’s IP addresses.

Subnet: is a contiguous group of IP addresses from the University’s IP Address range assigned to a Head of Budget Unit or non-ANU Entity for local network connections of network connecting devices within their respective area of responsibility.

University community: includes staff, students and visitors (visitors and guests) of the University and, therefore, are entitled to access to the information infrastructure and services via the ICN.

<#>LD: hierarchy of domains notation – eg, a 3LD (3rd Level Domain) domain name is “anu.edu.au”; a 4LD domain name is “www.anu.edu.au”.

Introduced: 8 June 2007

First Release