Purpose

The procedures outlined below are to provide information on the registration and usage of commercial domain names like .COM, .ORG and .NET for official UTPA content. The intent is to

• Ensure that official UTPA content is not lost when departments neglect to renew commercial domain names or if individuals leave the organization.
• Provide our visitors with a consistent .utpa.edu experience that follows our branding strategy and marketing goals.
• Avoid annual expense to UTPA of potentially renewing a large number of commercial domain names.

Scope

This procedure is intended for all departments in the University.

Prerequisites

None

Responsibilities

Registrant of a commercial domain name for the University

Procedure

1. If you need to register a .COM, .NET or .ORG domain for legitimate university related activities please send a request to webhelp@utpa.edu stating the need for this.
2. In general all departments and units within UTPA are encouraged to use the .utpa.edu namespace. A commercial domain name may be required if all of the following conditions are met
   1. The domain will be used by people in different organizations outside of UTPA as part of the Universities’ involvement in a collaborative effort.
   2. It is not for a department or unit within the University and the name is not similar to an existing departmental domain name.
   3. It does not adversely affect the branding and marketing of UTPA.
   4. It is for a project as part of a grant or external funding.
   5. If it is part of an outsourced solution and it is not possible to use the .utpa.edu namespace.
3. When any domain name is purchased the registration must have a contact from UTPA Internet Services listed as one of the technical contacts.
4. If the hosting for the domain is provided by Internet Services or if the commercial domain redirects to the .utpa.edu namespace then Internet Services will register the domain and provide all services associated with it including payment of the yearly renewal fees.
5. In most cases the external domain should be .ORG even if the equivalent .COM and .NET domains are purchased.

References

N/A

Definitions

IP Address:
The IP (Internet Protocol) address has a length of 32 bits divide into four 8-bit parts, separated by a period and is used to identify a host on the network. An example ip address would be 129.113.1.1.

Domain Name System (DNS):
DNS is an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they are easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.utpa.edu translates to 129.113.10.117.