.uk SLD history (was Re: Question on 7.0.0.0/8)

[Keith Mitchell <keith () isc org>]

This posting is not too relevant to the NANOG thread, but there are some
places where IMHO the record needs to be set straight:

Alexander Harrowell wrote:

>     025/8   Jan 95   UK Ministry of Defense              (Updated - Jan 06)

>     NetRange:   25.0.0.0 <http://25.0.0.0> - 25.255.255.255
>     <http://25.255.255.255>
>     CIDR:       25.0.0.0/8 <http://25.0.0.0/8>
>     NetName:    RSRE-EXP
>     NetHandle:  NET-25-0-0-0-1
>     Parent:
>     NetType:    Direct Assignment
>     NameServer: NS1.CS.UCL.AC.UK <http://NS1.CS.UCL.AC.UK>
>     NameServer: RELAY.MOD.UK <http://RELAY.MOD.UK>
>     Comment:
>     RegDate:    1985-01-28
>     Updated:    2005-09-06 
>
>
> Ah. I think you'll find this is a result of there being some legacy
> stuff from before the UK NIC, Nominet, was set up in 1996.

I don't recall this being anything to do with Nominet, which has never
had any role in IP address allocation, only .uk domain registration.

> Before then,
> the de facto authority was the academics, JANET, working out of the
> University of London Computer Centre. Hence cs.ucl.ac.uk
> <http://cs.ucl.ac.uk> getting in there.

The CS dept at University College London was an ARPA/SATNET research
site long before the ULCC/JANET production folks had anything to do with
IP in the early 90s. I think you'll find the above reference is to do
with early research-project collaborations between UCL-CS and the
military RSRE.

> There are a few domain names in a similar position - post nominet, the
> .uk zone was reorganised to assign 2LDs like *.gov.uk

Most of the widely-used 2LDs of .uk existed pre-Nominet.

> but there were
> already a few 1LD .uk assignments, notably mod.uk <http://mod.uk> and
> parliament.uk <http://parliament.uk>. I'm not sure if it's been cleared
> up who is responsible for them.

These are documented at:

        http://www.nominet.org.uk/registrants/sld/registrations/

To an "Internet old fart" like me :-), I think this demonstrates the
importance of recording for posterity some of what went down in the
early days. For those interested, we've been accumulating a series of
presentations at UKNOF meetings about UK Internet history from people
who were around during at the time, you can find these at:

        http://www.uknof.org.uk/history.html

(might make sense for any follow-up on this to be on another list, e.g.
uknof () uknof org uk or nom-steer () nic uk)

Keith

ISC/UKNOF