ITS follows DNS naming conventions for all domain, net, gateway and host names:

• Names must be a text string drawn from:

  • the alphabet (A-Z)

  • digits (0-9)

  • minus sign (-)

  • dot (period) (.)

• Dots are allowed only to show domain hierarchy.

• Names must be at least 2 characters long and preferably be no more than 14 characters long.

  • Single character names are not allowed.

  • UTnic will consider exceptions for names that are greater than 14 characters (up to 63 characters).

• No blank or space characters are permitted as part of a name.

• The first character should be an alpha character.

  • While RFC 1123 relaxed the RFC 952 restrictions to allow either a letter or a digit as the first character, UTnic prefers to follow its original naming conventions.

• The last character must not be a minus sign or period.

• Names are not case sensitive. No distinction is made between upper and lower case.

• Only hosts which serve as GATEWAYs should have "-GATEWAY" or "-GW" as part of their names.