Hmm, does this only apply to real domains or also to hostnames which Only to real domains. is very usual practice for dialin/SLIP type of providers? It basically comes down to the same thing. company.provider.top A a.b.c.d or company.provider.top NS some.where.else in my view is kind of the same, at least in binding the companies domain name and email address to the provider. Even in NL the first one is common practice. As far as I know this only goes for private persons, not for companies. Of course companies can obtain a mailbox on a service provider's host, making their e-mail address user@company.provider.top, but that is something I don't consider a real domain. And if a company has a SLIP link to a provider, the company can have its own domain and have the SLIP link act as just the carrier for the domain, just like in the "past" UUCP acted as domain carrier. Piet