How do US Public Schools DNS Work?

[MMiz]

Hello!

I hope to add a few extra lines to my resume by working on some projects for US public schools. They have crazy URLs like www.city.k12.mi.us. So here is my long list of questions.

1. Im wondering how DNS is handled for such domains.
2. Can they be added to WHM?
3. Any idea of what type of systems schools use for domain / email management?
4. What types of systems would they use to give all their students web space / email accounts?

Im looking for some general knowledge. I know I can learn by hands-on work, but Im hoping for that basic knowledge, or some topics I can go "googling" on. Thanks!
'
-Matt

[Chicken]

Well, the .us registry and specifically the k12 and city. state .us domains are/were run by various individuals in each city/state. I guess they donated equipment and manpower to run it. Anyone could run a city/state, but you had to demonstrate knowledge of (I forget exactly what) and I guess maybe show you had the connectivity and equipment (???).

I asked about it a long, long, long time ago (setting up one for my town and later, setting up a school site). Seemed flakey at best. Dependant on people that might, or might not, do what they said they were going to do.

I don't know if there's been a change to this now that .us is sold commercially. The old system might not matter.

2. Adding to WHM, I'd imagine, would be the same as any other domain.

3. All different sorts. From what I can tell, districts get reemed up the donkey by various companies who sell them things that they need to buy so that they get more money next year. This has nothing to do with need. I won't even start telling you about our school web site, the district web site, the district server system, the drops in the class rooms, etc. All I will say is that my guess is that you can multiply how ****'ed up our school and district is, by the number of schools and districts there are.

The server the school and district sites are on is so slow that it doesn't matter what they use. No one in their right mind would visit the sites, not to mention they might have been designed by drunk monkeys.

4. Abuse, don't do it. Things like message boards available for all to see are OK, but you have to be careful. There are things that are and are not permitted, or should I say, not worth the risk of providing. Lots of irritating issues when dealing with minors. Anyhow, whatever you do, keep it in mind. All you need is one parent of a minor to sue the district (and you while their at it), because their child got a offensive email that the district and ISP 'allowed' to be sent, and you're in a mess.

My adice is to offer a rich informational site and eliminate/limit the means in which students can communicate with eachother, and post information to the site.

[MMiz]

Great advice chicken thanks!

One little comment. I understand the importance of limiting the student's and site visitors ability to post to the site, or as it was explained by a lawyer (I was on the school side, I swear). Many schools give their kids email accounts and web space though. Even my mom's inner-city school, probably one of the worst in the country in terms of technology, funding, and persons skilled in computers, gives students who request both email and webspace. That is also common practice where I live in the 'burbs.

I just have no concept of what kind of software is used for this stuff. Back in High School we used "Novell" to log into the computer system, as did the teachers, but I have no idea if that is tied to anything else. We didnt have email back in high school, and the teachers were only able to get it at their computers located in their classroom.

Any idea of terms I could go searching on? From my understanding (and Im hoping im wrong), companies come and bid for contracts, and then the school spends the next five years complaining until its up. But I could be wrong.

Thanks for the input here folks!

-Matt

[Chicken]

Well, funding for these sorts of things is interesting. Schools never seem to have funds for things like teacher raises and buying more paper or paying the copier repair bill, yet they'll spend countless thousands installing a network in a complex of bungalows that are going to be torn down in 4 months.

Your guess is as good as mine.

[RandyC]

well, its a bit off this specific topic, but I do know that .edu domains are controlled by a private group, sorta like the USPS people.

Alot of schools get suckered into buying stuff tehy have no use for or dont need.

[proxy]

the logical answer would be that the dns is ns1.mi.us as thats the domain.