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Message Handling System
Management Domain Name

  1. About ANSI
  2. ANSI's Roles
  3. Registration Programs
  4. Message Handling System - Management Domain (MHS-MD) Names

What is the MHS MD Registration Service?

The Message Handling System (MHS) Management Domain (MD) registration service provides the registrant with a management domain name which can be used to identify an Administration Management Domain (ADMD) in the U.S. or a Private Management Domain (PRMD) under ADMD in the U.S.

An ADMD is a management domain which offers CCITT X.400 and ISO/IEC 10021 messaging service to the public. A US ADMD voluntarily upholds the behavior characteristics defined for ADMDs in the "Behavior Guidelines for Voluntary Participation within the US National X.400 MTS" and agrees to the Memo of Understanding written by the US National Message Transfer Service Implementors' Group.

A PRMD is a message handling system management domain that is managed by a private organization.

ANSI maintains a data base that is searched with every new registration request to ensure that duplicate identifiers are never registered.

Registration guidelines have been developed to administer the MHS MD registration process. The procedure specifies the syntax of names assigned by the MHS MD Registration Authority. The guidelines are available from the Registration Coordinator Henry Cheung (Phone: 212.642.4975, e-mail: [email protected]).

In order to recover costs, ANSI charges a one-time registration fee for this service.

see Fee Schedule below

An organization seeking registration of management domain names should contact ANSI to obtain a Request for Registration application form. Upon request for an ADMD or PRMD, ANSI will submit the MHS-MD name to a three-month public review period in their bi-monthly publication Standards Action before the registration is approved.

The name of a management domain must conform to the syntax below:

Attachment A
Character Sets
from Operating Guidelines for Registrars
Revision 3, 13 December 1992

Table B-1. Printable String

Name Graphic
Capital Letters A, B,...Z
Small Letters a, b,...z
Space (space)
Apostrophe '
Left Parentheses (
Right Parentheses )
Plus Sign +
Comma ,
Hyphen -
Full Stop .
Solidus /
Colon :
Equal sign =
Question Mark ?

Source: CCITT X.208. Table 5

Table B-2. Numeric String

Name Graphic
Digits 0,1,...9
Space (space)

Source: CCITT X.208, Table 4
Note: Numeric String is a subset of Printable String

An ADMD name registered by ANSI in the MD register is unique within the US and if used with countryName=us in an Originator/Recipient (O/R) address, the O/R address is globally unambiguous. If an originator wishes to operate an ADMD in another country, for example Canada, it must register in Canada to use its name with c=ca.

For PRMDs, if countryName=us and admdName =" ", the O/R address is globally unambiguous. If the name is to be used with another country in the O/R address, the name must be registered within that country.

Forever. However, ownership of MHS-MD names may be transferred and they may be suppressed at the request of the registered organization. There are also provisions for changing registration information about the "owner" to accommodate name and address changes as may occur.

The Organization Name Register and the MHS-MD Register are separate registers in the U.S. An organization may wish to register in either or both registers (with the same or different alpha-numeric names). Numeric names are only provided by the Organization Name Register. An organization wishing to use an alpha-numeric for an MHS-MD name needs to register this name in the MHS-MD Register.

Completed applications should be sent to ANSI, at the following address:

Henry Cheung
Registration Coordinator, ANSI
1180 Avenue of the Americas,  New York, NY 10036

Applications can also be faxed to the following: 1.212.398.0023.

The fee should accompany the application. ANSI accepts the following as payment: check, money order, American Express, Mastercard & Visa.

Note: Applications cannot be processed without the accompanying fee. If the application is faxed and the organization wishes to pay by check, the Registration Coordinator will hold the application until such fee is received. The same holds true for applications sent with a purchase order.

Fee Schedule

Registration fee for MHS-MD Name: $500

Challenge Loser Fee: To be determined

Challenge Fee: $500

Register Update Fee: $100

Inquiry Fee (per item): $100

Staff Contact

ANSI’s Registration Coordinator

Email:
[email protected]