The predecessor to the Internet in the UK in the 1980s - JANET - worked like this: For example, the University of Cambridge had the NRS name UK.AC.CAM, whereas

The predecessor to the Internet in the UK in the 1980s - JANET - worked like this: For example, the University of Cambridge had the NRS name UK.AC.CAM, whereas its DNS domain is cam.ac.uk. All NRS names had both a standard (long) and abbreviated (up to 18 characters) form. For example, UK.AC.CAMBRIDGE was the less widely used standard equivalent of the abbreviated name UK.AC.CAM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JANET_NRS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JANET_NRS