The web.cmu.edu Domain

General Overview

Some groups on campus have asked for Web servers with names in domains that currently don't exist. For example, the spam lovers club may ask for the web server www.spam.cmu.edu. Unfortunatly, this is the only machine the organization will ever have, so they do not need an entire third-level domain to themselves. (For more information on how third-level domains are granted, please read the Carnegie Mellon Third-Level Domain Guidelines.)

The Solution: web.cmu.edu

So that this organization would not be stuck with a hostname such as spam.pc.cc.cmu.edu, the .web.cmu.edu domain was setup. Organizations may request a hostname within this domain for their web server. In this case, the host may be registered as spam.web.cmu.edu. or www.spam.web.cmu.edu.

Departmental Web Servers

Another situation the .web.cmu.edu domain helps address is the case of departmental web servers for departments that would still like to have links on www.cmu.edu. The Carnegie Mellon Webmaster will update www.cmu.edu so that URLs such as http://www.cmu.edu/spam will be redirected to http://spam.web.cmu.edu/. This way, end-users will still see a common front door to the web service, and all of the main links on www.cmu.edu will point to hostnames that are vaguely similiar.

This is not a technical reason to use the .web.cmu.edu domain, and is not required.