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Is it just me or is it very easy to get names on the Internet that aren't really right for you? For example, I managed to register 'cambridge.ac', which might sound like it's something to do with the esteemed university, but is in fact at The Ascension Islands. We decided it would be fun to set up a spoof university, so we've inaugurated The University Of Different Studies. I'll leave you to peruse www.cambridge.ac if you're interested.

But this does raise an interesting and, as yet untold, point. The US, in its newly cuddly Dubya form, finds it very hard to know who is friend and foe. So it just assumes that everyone else is foe. And because of this, that simple '.com' nomenclature won't do. It tried forcing the domains away from Nasty International Companies, which had the temerity to register a .com, back to Good Ol' American Firms. I'm sure you'll remember the fuss and bother that arose with domain names like 'prince.com' when a US company decided that it should have it. That was despite the fact that a UK company had been quietly using the name for some time. Well, the US company was obviously correct, because 'America owns the Internet', doesn't it?

The problem with the current rash of easy-to-register domain name vendors is that any old Johnny Foreigner can have a .com, and the US doesn't like this. What once was its crowning jewel can now be sullied by anyone, anywhere. Such is the downside to capitalist free market trading, I fear. Therefore the US is fighting back with a solution.

To help Americans understand

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this, you will have noticed the rise in '.us' domain names. These are normally used in a configuration that includes a state name before the .us, so '.ca.us' indicates an organisation in California. However, I can exclusively reveal that this is just a temporary cover-up by the US naming organisations. You see, they have no intention of continuing with this, but plan to embark on a whole-scale renaming of Internet namespace.

You might not have realised this, but all Internet namespace revolves around root servers, a set of big computers that know where all the naming records are kept. Your DNS server, or the one at your ISP, knows where these root naming servers are held, and so knows how to resolve a name into an IP address, and vice versa. It knows a man who knows, as it were.

Now, there's no reason why we have to have just one set of root name servers. Heck, you can set up your own if you like - just tell your DNS server that it's Authoritative for the whole world and you can build your own namespace. The current root servers, named 'a' to 'm' in the naming sequence 'a.root-servers.net', 'b.root-servers.net', aren't all held in the US, but are geographically spread around the world in friendly locations. The US is going to put in a second, more patriotic set of root name servers and then suggest that ISPs use them instead of the current root name servers. By splicing into the namespace in this way, the US can clarify friend from foe by changing the name of the domain on the fly.

What could be simpler for a flag-waving inhabitant of Des Moines, Iowa than to have their Web experience split into two clear areas? Yes, it's '.us' and '.them'. So a 'good' US company like Microsoft will be renamed to 'microsoft.com.us', whereas some foreign chappy will be named to something like 'citroen.com.them'. This makes it clear whether it's a friendly company or one aligned to the Axis Of Evil. The European Union's response has been typically tardy and lukewarm. It's going to do the same to new root servers held in Berlin and these will end with '.eu' to indicate European Union.