This is a segment from our meeting minutes of 4/21/98

After general business had been handled, Adam gave an informative
presentation about domain names.  Adam has been through the process of
obtaining his own domain name "whitemice.org".  The details of his
presentation will be made available on KLUG's web page.  Here's a brief
outline of the topic:
        
        What is DNS?
                A service that resolves names such as www.kalamazoolinux.org
                  into IP addresses.
                A database that contains mail routing information.
        Who oversees DNS?
                Network Solutions Incorporated (NSI)
                National Science Foundation (NSF)
        Advantages to owning a domain name.
                Permanent address for electronic services (FTP, WWW, e-mail)
                Handle mail routing
                Virtually static IP address
                Formal internet presence (you look like a real company).
        Costs (Recently reduced to)
                $70.00 one time fee
                $35.00 annual fee (first two years must be paid up front)
                ISP may charge you filling out forms and setting it up
                  if you don't do it yourself.
                ISP will charge you $2-$15 for hosting the name
        How to Register
                Find an unused domain name (Good Luck!)
                        use 'nslookup'
                        use 'InterNIC' web site
                        use other web sites available
                Find a host (unless you are directly connected???)
                Submit the forms to NIC or your ISP.
        Warnings
                Beware of registration services that charge you much less.
                These folks register the name to themselves and charge you
                to use it.  If you own the domain name, you will get your
                invoice from InterNIC.
                Be careful about registering trademarked names.  You can
                be sued and they will most likely win.  The owners of Gumby
                sued a young child out of his birthday present -- a domain
                name with "gumby" in it.
                Registering under .edu is illegal if you are not a 4 year
                institution.  (I further imagine that registering under
                .gov and .mil is forbidden)

Side note: .org is for organizations and individuals, not just non-profit
           organizations as I once thought.  Apologies to those of you who
           already knew that.

This topic opened up a really confusing discussion about internet connections.
In an attempt to answer the question "When are you ON the INTERNET?", Bob
solicited mild snickering while he drew confusing pictures on the board and
theoretically routed mail through his server in "the can" using two 28.8K
modems and two ISPs to get his point across.

Bob purported that logically, when you call your ISP, you are on the internet.
Adam and Scott countered that you aren't.  The difference seemed to be that
nobody's "routing designation" put his can in the middle.  Thus he wasn't
on the internet, per se.  However, Adam agreed that he was "ON" the internet
but he wasn't "IN" the internet.  In order to be "IN" the internet, you
must pass traffic through your system.  And, it seems that you have to have
the cooperation of at least two other ISPs to do this.

All in all, it was a very enlightening and entertaining discussion.

Adam's slides are arranged here, left to right. You may click on any of them to take a look.