|
When the CompSoc network was set up in Keble college, about 1995,
we were able to use the ox.compsoc.org.uk domain, courtesy
of Manchester University Computer Society. This meant that we were not
required to fund the purchase of our own domain name at a time when money
was short and needed for hardware in the new machines. This system was
satisfactory and worked well whilst our machines were in Keble college.
The CompSoc machines then moved to Jesus College in 1997,
and resided there over the summer until December 1997 when Jesus College
found a new use for the location that fishy and daffy occupied. For this
reason the machines moved a second time. Each move was accompanied by a
change of the external IP address.
This change of IP address, and some changes in the way we provide some
CompSoc network services, led to changes in the DNS which had to be
hierarchically uploaded to Manchester. This process took a relatively
long time, varying from a few hours on one change (due to
some inspired tactics employed which made the Manchester end update
unusually fast), to several weeks last summer. During the change over
time there have been a host of problems including inaccessibility of some
services, unreliable mail delivery times and more.
For this reason and others (such as the number of complaints about the
length of username@ox.compsoc.org.uk etc to type) the
CompSoc sysadmin team investigated the idea of buying
compsoc.org so that we could provide our own DNS, issue
subdomains to other interested organisations (and possibly at a future
time, to members) and improve service access freely, quickly and
independantly. Alas our plans were thwarted by Computer Society, a Californian group who
at the time provided a single web page saying 'Computer Society... coming
soon'.
In an effort to gain the benefits already targetted, we continued to
search for domains, and found that compsoc.net was
available. Registration went through and the domain was bought on our
behalf by an ISP. Whilst we provide our own primary nameserving,
secondary nameserving is now begin provided by companies employing
CompSoc members who have left the University:
to whom we are very grateful. More information on people and
organisations who are helping CompSoc is available on our sponsor page.
After a large amount of discussion about whether we should use
compsoc.net or ox.compsoc.net as our primary
domain, the following solution was agreed:
ox.compsoc.net is used as the
primary domain name. All services are available under this, and email
is rewritten as originating from this domain.
lists.ox.compsoc.net is used
for all mailing lists.
compsoc.net is run in parallel to
ox.compsoc.net, such that many services are available
using a shorter name, and where the services offered are not of a
particularly Oxford related nature.
Naturally, we hope that other CompSoc-like organisations will be
interested in obtaining subdomains, in which case we can easily shift our
services to use exclusively ox.compsoc.net if we decide this
is necessary. We already provide Galway Computer Society with a
subdomain, and the University of Nottingham Computer Society have also
expressed an interest.
The Secretary
| 
