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For more information, contact:
Connie Roloff
McQUERTERGROUP,
619-450-0030 or 
Don Mitchell,
National Science Foundation,
202-357-9717 

For immediate release                                                      
April 1,1993



National Science Foundation Announces InterNIC Services 
Now Available for Internet Users


- Live Broadcast on Internet at 4:00 p.m. E.S.T. -


	Washington, D.C. - April 1, 1993 -  The National Science Foundation
announced today that services for the new Network Information Center (NIS)
Manager Project, or the InterNIC, are now available to all Internet users. 
A live broadcast announcing and explaining the new services will take place
over the network today at 4:00 p.m., E.S.T. 

 	"The National Science Foundation's NSFNET has become an essential
infrastructure used daily to facilitate communication and collaboration
among researchers, educators, and students and to provide them with remote
access to information and computing resources," said Steve Wolff, Director
of the National Science Foundation's Division of Networking &
Communications Research & Infrastructure.  "It has also been described as
the 'national backbone' for the U.S. portion of the global Internet which
today encompasses over 10,000 connected networks, 1.3 million computers and
12 million users.  The creation of the InterNIC makes the network easier to
use and more accessible to a broader segment of the U.S. Research and
Educational communities, enabling even non-technical users to take
advantage of its services."
	
- more- 

NSF Announces InterNIC Services Now Available - p. 2 of 6

	The InterNIC services are the result of Project Solicitation 92-94 by the
National Science Foundation in February of 1992, to provide and/or
coordinate Registration Services, 
Information Services and Database and Directory Services for the NSFNET and
the NREN (sm).  As a result of that solicitation, three separate
organizations were selected; Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI), Herndon, VA,
AT&T, Bedminster, NJ, and General Atomics/CERFnet, San Diego, CA.  
	
	"While the ability to use the network to allow NSI, AT&T and General
Atomics/CERFnet to work together without regard to their geographical
locations in itself represents a significant step toward the realization of
a national or even worldwide 'workplace without walls,'  the substance of
the InterNIC awards is also an important evolutionary step in the
development of the national infrastructure," said Wolff.

Network Solutions, Inc. will provide Internet registration services
including IP address allocation, domain registration and ASN assignment. 
Registration services as the IP registrar, issue IP numbers worldwide using
delegated registries under the guidance of the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority and also register domain names, and track points of contact. 
Applications for assignment will be accepted via e-mail or facsimile.  The
information from these assignments will be provided to the directory and
database services provider to be made available to the entire Internet
community.  As a part of the Domain registration efforts, Network Solutions
will periodically release the top level zone files to be used by all root
Domain Name servers. 
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NSF Announces InterNIC Services Now Available - p. 3 of 6

"NSI is dedicated to the development of further delegation in all areas of
the world such as the Pacific Rim and the continued enhancement of
interaction with the RIPE NCC for Europe," said Scott Williamson, Project
Manager for NSI. 

Major efforts are underway to automate the registration process.  This
includes putting the status of all registration action in a publicly
viewable form and pre-checking all registration requests with a
verification from the requestor.  If the requestor's question cannot be
answered through the status server, an 800 phone service is provided which
will be routed to a registration representative.

The AT&T provided services include the Directory of Directories, Directory
Services and Database Services to store data available to all Internet
users.  For the Internet users, all of these InterNIC services will be
available free of charge.

	The Directory of Directories includes lists of FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) sites, lists of various types of servers available on the
Internet, lists of white and yellow page directories, library catalogs and
data archives.  "The new InterNIC Directory of Directories will ultimately
make it much easier for novice users, as well for those who are experienced
users, to find resources on the Internet," said Erik Grimmelmann, Marketing
Director Internet/NREN for AT&T Data Communications Services.

	AT&T also provides white and yellow pages type Directory Services.  Access
to these services will initially be provided through several currently
popular in-use interface methods 

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NSF Announces InterNIC Services Now Available - p. 4 of 6

while migrating to the use of X.500 technology, the current standard
specification for distributed information storage and retrieval.  

	Through the InterNIC, AT&T is also providing database services. 
Information, documents, data collections and databases which the National
Science Foundation and other bodies such as IETF wish to make generally
available will be stored on an AT&T server using a UNIXR directory
structure.  

General Atomics/CERFnet will provide Information Services acting as the NIC
of first and last resort and the NIC of NICs.  Included in the Information
Services is the InterNIC InfoSource, an online collection of Internet
information.  InfoSource makes it easier to find and access people,
resources, and projects, making the Internet a more valuable resource. 
And, to ensure that up-to-date information is available for NICs and the
InfoSource, an individual, called an InfoScout, will be dedicated to
"scouting" out new resources.  There will also be Info 
Representatives staffing a reference desk, to provide timely information to
those needing a NIC of first resort or last resort.  In addition, as the
NIC of NICs, we will act as a focal point for collection and dissemination
of Internet information, giving campus and mid-level NICs a much needed
single point of contact.

"Teachers and administrators, students and scientists, researchers and
engineers - the people using the Internet - will benefit from the
information services provided," said Susan Estrada, Executive Director,
General Atomics/CERFnet.  

- more -

NSF Announces InterNIC Services Now Available - p. 5 of 6

	Subscribers to the Internet may view the live broadcast if they have an
audio-capable workstation (SPARC, SGI, DEC 5000) with IP multicast
software.  Connection must also be made to the semi-permanent virtual IP
multicast network, known as the 'MBONE'. For more information about what
hardware and software is required to receive the multicast, please refer to
venera.isi.edu in the file mbone/faq.txt.

	Network Solutions is a 400-person telecommunications analysis and
integration company headquartered in Northern Virginia.  Its mission is to
support its customers in achieving their missions through the mastery and
application of networking technology.  Network Solutions currently operates
the DDN NIC.

	AT&T is a global company that provides communications services and
products, as well as network equipment and computer systems, to businesses,
consumers, telecommunications service providers and government agencies. 
AT&T offers a wide array of data communications services that includes
private line, X.25, frame relay, TCP/IP, protocol conversion, and
electronic mail services.

	General Atomics is a San Diego-based high-technology research and
development company and operates CERFnet and the San Diego Supercomputer
Center.  CERFnet is an Internet network service provider that operates
throughout the state of California and nationally.  CERFnet was launched in
the spring of 1989 with a $2.8 million grant from the National Science
Foundation.  The San Diego Supercomputer Center is a five year cooperative
agreement funded by the National Science Foundation to support high
performance computing.
	
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NSF Announces InterNIC Services Now Available - p. 6 of 6


	For more information about the InterNIC, call 1-800-444-4345, or e-mail
info@internic.net.  For editorial inquiries please contact Connie Roloff at
McQUERTERGROUP, 619-450-0030.

# # #

NREN (sm) is a service mark of the United States Government administered by
the National Science Foundation.

UNIXR is a registered trademark of UNIX Systems Laboratories, Inc.

This material is based on work sponsored by the National Science Foundation
under Cooperative Agreement No. NCR-9218749.  The Government has certain
rights in this material.  Any opinions, findings and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science
Foundation.