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Setting up a free *.city.state.us locality domain

Setting up a free *.city.state.us locality domain

speckx

Comments (53)

  • kraptv
    I have three locality domains, all with different registrars in Oregon. Two are with unique delegated locality domain registrars (think old school consultancies or ISPs that still exist) and one directly via localitymanagement.us (GoDaddy/USTLD).One of the registrars is from an out of state operator that has been dead for three years. I tracked his widow down and had a number of cordial conversations over about 18 months. I've helped his widow renew some personal domains but she's recently told me that she's going to stop paying the hosting bill of the locality registrar and it'll shut down June 1st. I've offered to take over hosting, we'll see if she is convinced.Several other locality users will likely also see their domains disappear once that happens as the USTLD registrar will require a notarized letter from the city/county of that domain to approve any "new" (new in their system) domains. Not easy for any mid or large sized city in the US.I love locality domains clearly, but the bureaucracy applied since the start has piled up over the years.I do worry that this poor Seattle ISP is going to get DDoS'ed by outsider (find an appropriate locality please if you go down this route) due to the popularity of this article, though!RIP Jon.
  • kiddico
    Seeing the *.k12.oh.us in the delegated subdomains brought me back to highschool. When I was little I always wondered why the city name was before k12. Didn't know it was structured like that everywhere.
  • cormorant
    Some similarities to *.<lastname>.name -- one of which is that the Public Suffix List thinks you're part of a single site with others you have no control over. Another is the weird registration procedure, but this one is weirder!
  • ge96
    Wonder if there is an equivalent to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
  • CalRobert
    Seeing the list of contacts for delegated subdomains reminds me of a time when there were a lot more local ISP's. Inreach.com for Stockton, lodinet (possibly an ISP?) for Lodi..But the one that really shocked me was https://www.snowcrest.com/mysc/ - which seems to still be up and running?? I wonder if the login page for webmail (ISP-provided email was a thing! And even hosting space!) still works.https://web.archive.org/web/20090909141302/http://neustar.us...
  • Bender
    Will WHOIS requests leak my address?Nope. Even though you must supply your address in the registration form, a WHOIS request for your locality domain will only show information about the registrar.Perhaps I am misunderstanding their statement but unless something recently changed this is not true. The .US TLD does not permit whois privacy services. The full legal name and address of the registrant will be shown in my experience and I could not find a registrar that would deviate from this.Are they offering delegation of sub-domains of some domains they purchased perhaps? The example they gave did not suggest this if that is so. If that is the case then whois does not really apply unless they are giving different answers in their whois for sub-domains assuming their whois would be queried.That is why I opted for .org for a small town that I operated a website for in my spare time. When using a .US one can register it in the name of a company or the city can register it themselves through their own government to avoid a persons personal information being listed. Ensure auto-renew is enabled when assisting a city government as people come and go. Pay as far in advance for as many years as possible.
  • kuanbutts
    Anyone know why some larger cities are not listed? For example, I am noticing that Oakland, CA is missing. This would have been a major city in 1992 when the list was created as well.
  • kmoser
    > 5. Date Operational......: You can use your birth date here.Yikes, no!
  • dawnerd
    I want to set one up now and use it to call out the city board members taking kickbacks from flock.
  • ltsSmitty
    Great instructions! Well, I'll follow up and let you know if Gainesville, FL responds!
  • anon
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  • 1970-01-01
    Before you jump in, and because why not, there are also city-centric TLDs for purchase, with little oversight:.nyc.boston.quebec.miami.vegas
  • giobox
    Remarkable, I had absolutely no idea I could do this in my state. I suspect this post is going to cause a spike in applications as folks like me discover we can have one for free.
  • aquir
    I wish there would be something like this in the UK but with county instead of state. E.g. swindon.wiltshire.uk or sheffield.southyorkshire.uk
  • pmcgoron
    > FL HOTDOG.MIAMI.FL.US. arodriguez@houseit.comI'm very confused by this entry. There isn't even a miami subdomain, just a Dade subdomain.
  • beezle
    I had one, registered I think in 1991, back in the uucp bang days. Had to give it up due to changes in requirements and IIRC Nustar being a real pain. Would like to get it back but no desire to jump through hoops to do so.
  • TrevorFSmith
    Definitely keep in mind that right or wrong, these hosts are unusual as far as most commercial services are concerned and it can reveal annoying edge cases in their software.
  • thrill
    Aren’t there several states that have the same city name repeated within the state? I think there’d need to be a county delineator here too.
  • uneekname
    See also: http://nguyen.cincinnati.oh.us/locality.htmlEdit: already linked in the article! That's what I get for not reading to the end!