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	The Clout Project, what is it and how do I use it?

	
	The Clout Project is the email project of the non-profit organization
UniForum Chicago.  Several years ago, it sponsored a distributed multi-node
virtual machine that not only provided name and routing services, but actually
spooled and delivered mail for client machines.  The reason we provided this
service, gratis, was that there was no affordable alternative for small    
organizations or individuals; services providers charged fees for services 
that were beyond the means of most such candidates.  The Clout project     
filled that gap.                                                           
	Recently, however, multiple Internet providers have begun offering
service in the Chicago metropolitan area.  Providing good physical coverage
and rates for mail delivery and other Internet-related services that would have
been impossible several years ago, these providers have effectively
made the necessity for the Clout project to deliver Email obsolete.  This
is good; it is the kind of evolution for which we strove, and we're very
glad to see that our interim service was able to carry us through until
such alternatives were available.  We still have work to do, however.
	The Clout Project has a strong mandate to support and encourage the
use of Internet-style domainist addressing (RFC 822), and does this through
participation in the .us domain project.  The .us domain is a fully official
Internet domain specifically intended to provide a place for people whose
machines might not quite fit in one of the other top level Internet domains.
RFC 1480 describes the rules governing use of the .us domain.  The machine
dns.chi.il.us is primary domain name server for the chi.il.us and
chicago.il.us sub-domain of the .us domain.  There are currently two
other DNS servers on other Networks and at other locations that are
updated regularly from the primary.
	What this means is, you can contact us and we will register your
machine in the chicago.il.us domain so that the rest of the Internet-aware
world can find it. We also maintain two lists of machines that will forward
Electronic Mail via UUCP or SLIP/PPP. Doug Blair and Randy Smith post their
lists quite regularly to the Usenet newsgroup chi.mail. In the near future
we will have responsibility for some of the collar counties too. So if you
would prefer to be registered in kane.il.us or mc-henry.il.us please let
us know.
	Some of the advantages of being in the chicago.il.us, kane.il.us
mc-henry.il.us domain instead of the .com or .org are:

   -The Clout Project administrators will take care of the details 
    of creating and maintaining the existence of your registry     
    in the domain.

   -You can own an address, either personal or for an organization,
    that is independent of your employment, etc.

   -Decreased reliance on one services DNS

   -ability to keep the same Email address despite switching
    service providers

   -More distributed DNS servers than some providers maintain

   -Possibility of redundant connections with different service
    providers. Each could spool up your mail such that if one of
    them failed, your mail would still get through, (except for
    those messages already spooled up on the failed machine).

   -No fees are currently charged for this service or the name registry.

	The Clout project is currently investigating other Email and Internet
related services that will be supported in the future.
	While we are a project of UniForum Chicago which is in turn
the Chicago area chapter of UniForum, you don't have to be a member of either
to make use of the Clout Project.  However, we encourage membership in
UniForum Chicago.  It's inexpensive, and provides the funds we need to
continue to offer such services to the community.  Some other
services and benefits do require membership, and are well worthwhile.

For more details on UniForum Chicago, please contact mep@xnet.com.

	More about the .us domain:

	The .us domain is a formal Internet domain, recognized throughout the
world. The update of RFC 1480 "The US Domain" has revised the
members of the .us domain to include primary schools, secondary schools,
City governments and State governments. 
	A requirement of RFC 1480 is that your mail software have
valid Internet-style addresses in the "From:" or "Return-Path" fields
of the header of the messages that you send out.  This may mean that you
will have to modify your sendmail configuration file if that is what
you are using under UNIX or configure your mail software to do the above.
Administrators of the Clout project are able to advise you concerning
software acquisition, configuration, etc.
	The .us domain was intended primarily as a catch-all for
the people who might not quite fit into one of the other domains.  This
usually means people's personal machines. However with the June 1993
revision of RFC 1480 there is no longer a restriction of how many machines
can be registered in the .us domain.  This opens the door for small
businesses and organizations with multiple machines.

	The Clout Project is the primary authority for the chi.il.us,
chicago.il.us, kane.il.us and mc-henry.il.us domains, (though we do
provide DNS name service to sites in other domains), and is fully
responsible for administration of these subdomains.  We are no longer
accepting applications for the chi.il.us domain and urge any current
members of that domain to migrate to the chicago.il.us domain.

	How to contact us and get the ball rolling:

URL:	http://www.clout.chi.il.us or http://www.isi.edu:80/in-notes/undnr/

	If you currently have e-mail access you can drop a note to:

		postmaster@clout.chi.il.us

	The contact person monitoring that address will then put you in
touch with one of the clout administrators who can answer your questions
and set you up.
	If you don't have e-mail access (and that's why you want to get
in touch with us), you can call one of the administrators (or the
postmaster); some phone numbers are listed at the end of this document.
	Some of the machines that provide forwarding in the Chicago area
charge monthly and/or usage fees and provide additional services such as
BBS software access, Usenet News and FTP/Internet access.  If you are
planning on using a forwarding site not in the .chi.il.us and chicago.il.us
domain please include the Email address of the technical contact of that
site so that we can verify that it is okay for your mail to flow through that
site. Some of the Internet forwarding providers used to contact us for you
in order to set up the name service records.
	While the Clout project cannot endorse any Internet service provider, 
we can make available to you a comprehensive list of such providers in the
Chicago metropolitan area.  This will let you know who the providers are,
what services they offer, and how to contact them for rate information.

Mike Beirne 773-348-8438
Doug Blair  630-527-8899

UniForum Chicago information: Randy Smith <wsmith@etc.com> 708-717-0264

Thanks to XNet, WorldWide Access, CICNet and MCSNet for hosting our
primary and secondary nameservers.
-- 
Michael G. Beirne | 1509 W. Oakdale 1st, Chicago,IL 60657-4010, (773)348-8438
beirne@limerick.chi.il.us or beirne@wwa.com