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Federal Internet Law & Policy
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DNS: dot Gov : dot Mil

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- - .gov
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Telephone Addresses

.GOV, .Fed.US, -NSN.GOV 

Dot Gov Register .GOV has historically been reserved exclusively for the US Government . Whitehouse.gov, and not whitehouse.us or whitehouse.gov.us (and certainly not whitehouse.com which for years was a porn site), has been the domain name of the White House. Recently, the use of the .GOV TLD has been opened up to other U.S. government entities including local and state governments. 

A new domain name .FED.US was created for cabinet level federal agencies (which ironically could exclude vast parts of the US federal government which are not cabinet level - such as the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency). 

There is also a TLD for Native Sovereign Nations within the United States, -NSN.GOV . Federally recognized Indian Tribes are eligible for the use of this domain. 

.gov, -nsn.gov and .fed.us are administered by the US General Services Administration. 

Registrations that Qualify for a .GOV Domain: 

  • US governmental entities on the federal level
  • Agencies with codes ending in "00" listed in FIPS 95-2 
  • Agencies listed in the US Government Manual. 
  • Cross-Agency Collaborative organizations 
  • Federally recognized Indian Tribes (-NSN.GOV domain) 
  • State governmental entities 
  • City and Townships governmental entities 
  • County and Parish governmental entities 
  • Special exceptions and requests are available 

    • Note that .gov is not available for military entities; .mil is reserved for their use. 

    Entities interested in use of these domains can check their availability using the online registration form. Interested entities must then "submit an authorization letter from your highest-ranking information technology official. This letter should be submitted within 60 days of completing the online registration form." 

    There is currently no fee for a domain in these TLDs , however, GSA "reserves the right to charge for domain names in order to recover cost of operations." 

    For additional information see the GSA website (for extra credit, note GSA's reference to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and describe what may be wrong with it) or contact the help desk at

    Toll Free: (877) REG-GOVT
    (877) 734-4688 
    Phone: (703) 375-2252 
    Fax: (703) 935-7457 
    E-mail: registrar@dotgov.gov 


      Links
  • .gov NIC
  • Registry for .gov TLD
  • General Services Administration
  • Final Rule - 41 CFR Part 102-173 - Federal Management Regulations; Internet .gov Domain (March 2003)
  • See RFC 2146.
  • FNC Resolution  "In June 1995, the FNC issued a policy providing the InterNIC with direction on who can be issued a top level .GOV domain name. For a copy of the policy, see RFC 2146. Note that most organizations possessing .GOV domain names were grandfathered under this policy. RFC 2146 relies on the Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB 95-1) and the U.S. Government Manual for guidance on categorization of Federal entities. Top level departments, as well as independent agencies which are listed in the FIPS-95-1, qualify for registration at the .GOV level. (Copy of FIPS-95-1.) "

    • News


     

    .MIL
    The US Military has its very own gTLD, .mil. It is administered by the Defense Information Service Agency which had a significant hand in the development of the Internet. This gTLD is restricted to use only by the US military. DISA can be contacted at 
    DoD Network Information Center
    7990 Science Applications Court
    MS CV-50 
    Vienna, VA 22183-7000 
    nic@nic.mil
    1-800-365-3642

    DOD NIC (Be prepared to be monitored and not find out too much information)

    News

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