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		Network Information Center Guidelines
			     January 1994

		     Prepared by the staff at the
	   NASA Network Applications and Information Center
		      Moffett Field, California

			  Table of Contents

Section 1.  Introduction
Section 2.  Determining Scope and Audience
Section 3.  NIC Staffing Requirements
Section 4.  NIC Equipment Requirements
Section 5.  NIC Procedures
Section 6.  Online Information Tools
Section 7.  Documentation Tasks
Section 8.  Outreach and Liaison Activities
Section 9.  Overview of Useful Resources
Section 10.  NIC Services Quick Checklist
Appendix A.  References
Appendix B.  Acronyms
Appendix C.  Configuration Examples


	  Please send all comments and suggestions online to
			    naic@nasa.gov
				  or
			EAST::"naic@nasa.gov"

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==============================================================

Section 1. Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Network Information Center Guidelines was written by NASA's  Network 
Applications and Information Center (NAIC) with two goals in mind.  
First, this document is designed to help organizations new to the 
Internet learn what a Network Information Center (NIC) is and how they 
can establish one.  During the hectic time an organization first connects 
to the greater Internet, setting up a Network Information Center is often 
the last thing that comes to mind, so it can be quite surprising when 
people start calling with the usual myriad of questions!

Second, this document is designed to provide a definition of what we 
consider basic NIC services to be so that organizations that may already 
have a NIC established can have some guidance by which to benchmark their 
efforts.

Those working in the area of NIC services are routinely faced with many 
challenges.  What are the tasks a Network Information Center commonly 
faces?  What has to be done to set priorities and make the most of 
limited resources?  How can an organization meet the information and 
training needs of its users?  What support does the Internet itself offer 
that can help a NIC?  This document answers these and other questions, 
gives a valuable head start to new organizations, and offers concrete 
information to organizations who may be wondering if they've covered the 
basics.

This introduction defines the focus of the document, provides an overview 
of its contents, introduces the major NIC functions this document will 
address, and provides some background information about the authors.

OUR FOCUS

We recognize that the guidelines set forth in this document will apply 
differently to different NIC efforts.  Some sections will not apply at 
all to some NICs.  Many NICs will have an even larger scope than the 
information in this document covers.  We have tried to organize the 
contents so that readers can easily identify and implement those portions 
of the Guidelines that they find most useful and appropriate to their 
individual situations.

NICs traditionally provide several types of services.  The most common 
services are information services, registration services, directory 
services, and operational support.  Each of these categories of service 
encompasses several tasks, far too many for us to cover in this short 
document.  Therefore, we have chosen to stress information services in 
this document because we feel that they are the core of NIC services and 
the type of service that can be the most difficult to quantify, 
especially for new sites.  Information services are also those which will 
most open up the power of the Internet to your users.

OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS

Network Information Center Guidelines contains the following sections.

-   This introduction, which includes  an overview of a NIC's functions.
-   A discussion of the need to consider the scope and audience of your 
    NIC services and the advantages of doing so.
-   Suggestions regarding the functions NIC personnel typically fulfill.
-   A brief look at a NIC's hardware environment.
-   An in-depth look at everyday procedures a NIC should follow, 
    including security concerns.
-   An introduction to useful online information retrieval tools, and 
    guidelines for establishing Gopher, WAIS, and FTP servers.
-   A discussion of the necessary documentation efforts in which a NIC 
    will engage.
-   A discussion of the need for NIC outreach and several outreach 
    methods.
-   A compilation of existing Internet resources of which a NIC should be 
    aware and which a NIC can use to support its in-house activities.
-   A checklist a tasks you can use as a quick reference tool when 
    implementing your NIC.
-   Finally, we present a reference section, a list of acronyms, and 
    sample configuration files.

We hope you find Network Information Center Guidelines helpful.  If you 
have any questions about its contents or about NICs or NIC tasks in 
general, please do not hesitate to contact the NAIC.  Our contact 
information is listed at the end of this Section.

NIC FUNCTIONS

This section provides brief introductions to the major functions a NIC 
fulfills.  This document will address each of these functions in some 
depth.  However, we thought it would be useful to provide an introduction 
to these functions, so that you would get a feel for the scope of the 
document and to set the context for what we will address in greater 
detail in the following pages.

WHAT IS A NIC?

A network information center (NIC) is an organization that provides 
informational and procedural support services to users of a computer 
network.  The services that a NIC provides should facilitate and enhance 
a user's networking experience.  Services may be rendered on multiple 
levels  and in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the networking 
community being served.  The expertise of the recipients of the 
assistance may range from minimal to highly technical and a NIC needs to 
accommodate each user at his or her own level.

In order to meet the needs of its user constituency, a NIC typically 
addresses the functional areas of user assistance, information 
organization, online information services, outreach and liaison, and 
documentation.

USER ASSISTANCE

A NIC's main function is to support its users.  This is accomplished via 
a combination of direct and indirect methods.  Direct assistance to users 
is provided by telephone, electronic mail, facsimile transmittals, or in 
person.  A NIC's user support constituency may be quite varied, possibly 
consisting not only of already connected end-users, but also of those 
interested in establishing a connection to the network, and even of users 
of other networks.  Answering user queries  can involve a  wide variety 
of tasks  and skills., and requires  the ongoing gathering and organizing 
of a variety of information.

ONLINE INFORMATION SERVICES

Most indirect user assistance is provided by means of online information 
services that users can access on their own.  Traditional online services 
include file transfer (FTP), Telnet, electronic mail (email), and 
directory services (such as X.500).  In addition, a NIC will often 
provide its community with an online information server such as Gopher, 
the World Wide Web, or WAIS.

INFORMATION ORGANIZATION AND AWARENESS

A basic function of any NIC is the ongoing task of gathering and 
organizing information.  It is essential that the NIC is up to date on 
network events and resources.  This information is then used to benefit 
users either by having staff aware of resources that can assist in 
answering user queries, or by making it available in some form via the 
online information servers users can access themselves.  A NIC can also 
turn this information back to its users by including it in newsletters, 
tutorial files, or documents.

A NIC will also often maintain an online network library of documentation 
as well as a hardcopy collection pertaining to networking issues, 
protocols,  standards, and other relevant information that is essential 
to  furnishing needed information to the user community.  

Functioning as a referral service for its users, a NIC collects and 
maintain NIC-related referral information, and it provides referrals to 
other information sources (for example, other NICs or libraries) when 
appropriate. 

OUTREACH AND LIAISON

Outreach activities are those where the NIC reaches out in some way to 
its constituency rather than waiting for users to contact the NIC.  Such 
activities can include writing newsletters or other publications and 
documentation to keep users informed of interesting current or upcoming 
events, network developments, and new tools.  Such information may also 
be conveyed via online mailing lists, direct hardcopy mailings, or by 
means of conference exhibits.

NICs also provide training to users by sponsoring seminars, classes, and 
workshops that assist users in better understanding their network 
environment. 

A NIC also performs liaison activities to ensure that its services are 
compatible with and comparable to similar services offered on other 
networks.  The Internet environment is a very cooperative one, and 
interaction with colleagues can inspire many service enhancements.  A NIC 
communicates with other information centers to coordinate and collaborate 
on activities that are mutually beneficial to their respective user 
communities.

DOCUMENTATION SERVICES

It is clear from the above tasks that a NIC prepares a wide variety of 
written information.  Although this function can be thought of as 
belonging under some other NIC task, it is useful to single it out as 
that emphasizes its importance and may assure that the NIC has the 
resources to fulfill this very important function.  Documentation tasks 
include the preparation of marketing information, tutorial documentation, 
and online files.  Also to be considered are the general format and 
printing issues that are involved in the publication of any hardcopy 
material.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

This document was prepared by the staff of the Network Applications and 
Information Center (NAIC).  The NAIC is  part of the Advanced Network 
Applications  (ANA) group at NASA's Ames Research Center, located at 
Moffett Field, California.

WHAT IS THE NAIC?

The Network Applications and Information Center is the NIC for the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  NASA, via the NASA 
Science Internet and its predecessors, has been a major participant in 
the Internet for many years, and is currently assisting many other US. 
federal agencies and scientific agencies in many countries around the 
world to connect to the NASA Science Internet (NSI).  The NASA Science 
Internet is a multiprotocol computer network of networks that spans not 
only the entire United States, but also the world from Antarctica to 
Russia.  The NSI is one of the major networks that make up the Internet 
itself.

To compile this  Guide to Network Information Center services, NAIC 
personnel have called upon their collective years of experience in 
assisting network users 

WHAT IS ANA?

The NAIC is part of the Advanced Network Applications (ANA) Group at Ames 
Research Center.  The ANA specializes in developing, implementing, and 
operating high technology and distributed network applications.

ANA is managed by the Communications and Information Systems Division and 
consists of the Network Services Development Group and the Network 
Applications and Information Center.

In addition to providing support to the information centers located at 
the various NASA Centers (CNICs), and other NASA network users, ANA 
provides planning and support for NASA Headquarters applications.

HOW TO CONTACT THE NAIC

Telephone

  1-800-858-9947  (toll-free within US)
  1-415-604-0600  (outside US)

Staff are available to answer the phone from 6 AM to 5 PM Pacific time.  
Voicemail messages left at other times will be promptly returned.  If you 
have any questions about anything in this document, please call us!

Fax

  1-415-604-0978

Electronic Mail

  From an Internet host send mail to:
          naic@nasa.gov

  From a DECnet host send mail to:
          EAST::"naic@nasa.gov"

Telnet (Remote Login)

  From an Internet host type
         telnet naic.nasa.gov

  From a DECnet host type
         SET HOST EAST

         [login:] naic.nasa.gov!

Once connected to the host naic.nasa.gov, type the command naic to access 
the online information in our Gopher server.

Postal Mail

  NAIC
  NASA Ames Research Center
  M/S 204-14
  Moffett Field, CA  94035-1000


CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS DOCUMENT**

   
Typeface       Function

italic         Used to indicate online directory names, pathnames, 
               filenames, or email addresses; also used for empasis.

courier        Used to indicate program/machine output.

courier bold   Used to indicate literal user input.

courier italic Used to indicate variable user input.

%              Used to indicate Unix shell.





** Conventions based on typeface changes are not used in the ASCII
   text version.



Section 2. Determining Scope and Audience

DETERMINING SCOPE AND AUDIENCE

Once you have been entrusted with the responsibility for establishing a 
NIC, there are several important questions you should answer.  In some 
cases, the answers will be obvious, but that will not be true for 
everyone in every situation.  Even though the initial period during which 
a NIC establishes operations is usually hectic, and considering these 
questions may not seem to be a priority, doing so as you get started will 
undoubtedly save confusion and effort later.

The following points should be considered carefully before you get too 
far in making choices regarding the tasks you will undertake and their 
relative priorities.

1.  Determine the audience you will serve.
2.  Determine the requirements of your audience.
3.  Determine the scope of your effort.
4.  Determine a vision for your future.

Let us look briefly at each of these in turn, understand why they are 
important, and how one leads to the next.

DETERMINE THE AUDIENCE YOU WILL SERVE

This is probably the easiest of the four questions, but it may also seem 
deceptively easy when, in fact, the truth is fuzzy.  Your audience may be 
anyone working on the particular project that supports your network and 
you may know everyone by name.  Or your audience may be spread throughout 
a building, a multi-building site, a city, a state, a country, or 
throughout the world. 

If your network is connected to the greater Internet, you may find 
yourself supporting users who have nothing to do with your agency or 
company, but who see you as their information portal to finding out about 
network activities your agency supports.

After considering this question, you should be able to describe your 
audience with a simple statement.  For example, "the NAIC's primary 
audience is NASA Science Internet users, and NASA scientists and 
researchers."  This audience, as it happens, includes not only those 
people directly connected to equipment and circuits engineered by NASA, 
but also NASA funded researchers using networks administered by providers 
other than NASA.  The NAIC also has a secondary audience of general 
Internet users who seek information about NASA networking and online 
resources.

DETERMINE THE REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR AUDIENCE

Before you determine the scope for your functions, you must know what 
functions are needed.  Therefore, you must determine what services your 
constituent audience requires.

If your audience is small, you can actually ask them what services they 
would like to see you provide.  Alternatively, possibly a management team 
can set priorities for your NIC.

Very often, however, a NIC will be serving a large, diverse, possibly 
widely dispersed group of people.  In this case, you will probably need 
to make some assumptions about what these users require.  Always be aware 
of when you're making assumptions, so that you can revise them when real 
information becomes available.

These Network Information Center Guidelines can give you ideas of 
services that you can assume would be good to provide.  You probably have 
other ideas about information you know you should supply for your users.  
These ideas  will serve as a good starting point for your NIC.  As your 
users get to know you and you get to know them, it will be easy to 
recognize new bits of information and new services that would benefit 
your audience.  Remember that the requirements of your audience are 
dynamic and should be periodically revisited in order to keep your NIC's 
services as useful as possible.

DETERMINE THE SCOPE OF YOUR EFFORT

The most important, most useful task you can accomplish when establishing 
a NIC is to determine what the scope of your effort will be.  Doing so 
sets the limits of your work, and makes it easy to determine where you 
need to concentrate your efforts as well as what you can leave alone.

Once you have answered the questions about your audience, there are 
several other factors to be considered when determining your scope.

Consider:

-   What resources do you have to work with?
-   What are the skills of your staff?
-   How much time will a service require, and will your staff be able to 
    invest that much time?
-   Will you have the staff or programming resources needed to keep the 
    information you offer up to date?

You cannot effectively determine your scope without first answering the 
questions about your audience.  However, let us say that you can actually 
clearly determine every requirement your audience has.  Does this mean 
that the scope of your NIC will encompass each of these needs?  That is 
the question you must answer.  In the real world of limited manpower and 
resources, the answer is probably "no."  You probably cannot support 
everything everyone wants.

Obviously, you must determine what your resources are.  How many people 
will you be able to support?  How much other capital will you be able to 
spend?  What type(s) of computers will you have for network services?  
These answers may have been previously determined by some management 
decision.  On the other hand, you may be writing a proposal of some sort 
and have the option of asking for the resources you feel you will need.  
In either case, you face the essential task of prioritizing the services 
you will provide.

Another factor that you must take into consideration is the skill set of 
your staff.  It is no good offering a particular service if you do not 
have knowledgeable staff to support that service.

Also, what time resources will your staff have?  You may have  extremely 
knowledgeable staff members, but if they are stretched too thin to have 
the time to support a service as it needs to be supported, then that 
service probably should not be offered.  Be careful in planning to 
provide information that must be updated often, such as data in a 
contacts database or information about the dynamic Internet itself, if 
you do not have the staff resources to keep that information up to date.  
Stale information gives people a bad impression of your overall service.

Like everything else about a NIC, the scope must be dynamic and
responsive to a changing network environment.  However, if you can
develop a clear scope, you will not need to waste much time trying to
figure out if a new task is something you should do or not; many tasks
will be eliminated because they clearly fall outside of your defined
scope.  In addition, if there are many requests for you to take on a
new task, being able to show that the task requires a broadening of
your scope can give you a strong argument for obtaining increased
resources.

DETERMINE A VISION FOR YOUR FUTURE

Without a vision of what you want for the future of your NIC, you will 
fall into a mode where you will always simply be reacting to the latest 
crisis or the latest "emergency" request from some part of your 
constituent audience.  Such a mode is certainly a part of NIC life, but 
it is best not to let it totally consume your time. If you are always 
reacting, you will always be behind trends.  Determining a vision for 
your future means you can take a leadership role in guiding your users 
and perhaps even others to where you want to be.  More pragmatically, you 
need a vision in order to anticipate work loads and plan to meet changing 
resource needs.

What sorts of tasks would such a future vision encompass?  To start with, 
any of the tasks you identified as requirements of your audience, but for 
which you did not currently have sufficient resources to provide.  There 
are probably other services that you have become aware of that your 
audience did not know about.  If you would like to provide these but were 
unable to make them a startup priority, definitely add them to your plans 
for the future.

Try to make your vision as concrete as possible.  If you note that you 
would like to offer certain services, try to determine when this will be 
possible.  It would at least be preferable if you can clarify exactly 
what requirements must be met before you can offer the service.

CONCLUSION

This section was aimed at emphasizing the importance of doing some
serious thinking about the scope of your NIC effort before you get
too far along in implementing your NIC.  It is hoped that the
information in the rest of the Guide will help you become aware of
possible services and types of information you can provide, which
should help you in making decisions about the extent of your efforts.
Clarifying your audience, scope, and resources is essential to
establishing a professional, efficient Network Information Center.


Section 3. NIC Staffing Requirements

NIC STAFFING REQUIREMENTS

This part of the Guide  provides some idea of the staff that will be 
needed for your Network Information Center.  Of course, staffing 
arrangements are influenced by a number of factors.  Probably the primary 
factor that will influence your staffing decisions will be your budget.  
But while your budget will determine how many people you can hire, you 
can be creative in mixing and matching your personnel with the many 
different functions you will want your staff to fulfill.  This section 
reviews the different roles NIC staff fulfill (which are described in 
detail in various sections of the Guide) and gives you an idea of how to 
determine the amount of time each function may require so that you can 
better gauge the number of people you would need if you wanted to fulfill 
a particular function.  Most often in a NIC setting, each staff member 
wears several different hats; that is, each person performs tasks in 
several functional areas.

DIRECT USER SUPPORT

First and foremost, a NIC supports users and answers their questions.  
There are several ways of doing this, but you must definitely plan to 
hire personnel to interact directly with users via the telephone hotline 
and electronic mail.  The number of hotline staff you hire depends on a 
number of factors.  You may not know the answers to all of these 
questions if you are just starting up, but here are some factors to 
consider:

-   How many users do you support?  For hotline staff, this question is 
really better asked as how many telephone and electronic mail queries do 
you receive?  The distinction is that one user population may use a 
hotline service more frequently than another group of the same size due 
to differences of experience or other factors.

-   How quickly must you respond to user queries?  Most NICs try to 
respond as soon as possible, but if your environment allows you to keep 
users waiting, you can probably get by with less staff.  (We do not 
recommend that you keep users waiting, however.)

-   How many different computer platforms do your users use and must your 
staff be familiar with?  If it is within the scope of your NIC's services 
to answer questions about every type of computer in your user community, 
you will either need extremely widely experienced individuals, or a team 
of people with experts on different platforms.

-   How many applications must your staff support?  For example, will you 
be expected to know the details of every mail program anyone on your 
network might choose to use?  It is clear from these last two bullets 
that the wider your scope of services, the more staff you will need.

In general, hotline support is provided in two levels.  Sometimes this is 
done very formally, and sometimes informally.  The person who first 
answers the phone is considered Level 1 support.  The person who acts as 
a more expert resource to the Level 1 person is considered Level 2 
support.  Whether this system is set up formally or informally at your 
NIC, you will evenually encounter the problem of a user asking a question 
that the hotline person be unable toanswer, regardless of how 
knowledgeable he is.  When the hotline person asks for help from another 
person with more expertise on the question's topic, he is invoking Level 
2 support even if that is not a system formally recognized in your NIC.  
To limit misunderstandings, however, and to ensure that Level 2 support 
is available when needed, it is best for management to alert the people 
they anticipate as providing Level 2 support that they may be called upon 
to fulfill this function.

LEVEL 1 USER ASSISTANCE SUPPORT

This level is designed to handle most of your NIC's calls.  These hotline 
personnel are generalists who resolve most of the calls, usually while 
the caller is still on the line.  Their job descriptions would typically 
includes tasks such as:

-   Determine the severity of the call.
-   Document the problem.
-   Attempt to solve the problem.
-   Resolve 60% - 80 % of the problems.
-   Refer problem to Level 2 support appropriately.
    These staff generally have the following qualifications:

    -   Generalist with a wide knowledge base (i.e. an expert generalist).
    -   Some technical expertise.

LEVEL 2 USER ASSISTANCE SUPPORT

Those problems not solved by Level 1 are passed on to the staff of 
problem managers.  If the problem cannot be resolved at Level 1 and needs 
to be passed on to the next level, a Level 2 analyst is responsible for 
insuring that it is solved, and usually remains the contact with the 
customer until it is.  

Level 2 analysts can be described as: 

-   More experienced technicians than those at Level 1.
-   Usually specialists in a certain product, application, or system.
-   Problem managers.
-   Typically resolve 15% - 20% of the problems.

It is possible, as mentioned above, to combine these groups into one 
central organization staffed with experienced, highly trained personnel 
who take all the calls and handle all the problems.  If, for some reason, 
a call cannot be resolved immediately, the problem manager will need to 
research the problem to resolution.

This leads to a very important point about the amount of time any one 
staff  person should be responsible for answering the phone each day.  
Studies have shown that hotline staff should be on the phone no more than 
4 to 5 hours each day.  Since hotline personnel are typically under a lot 
of pressure, job burnout is common.  Once you have a good staff, you will 
want to try to keep them.  Holding on to trained staff both saves you 
money and ensures a higher quality of server.  A high staff turnover rate 
leads to the need to invest more in training new staff.  Having a high 
percentage of your staff be less experienced will affect the quality of 
service you are able to provide to your customer.  Staff typically spend 
time they are not directly answering questions doing other types of work, 
such as researching open problems, preparing information to be presented 
online, doing documentation tasks, enriching their knowledge of network 
services, or testing new products, services, and applications.  

Of course, direct user support personnel are also responsible for 
answering user questions that arrive via email.  Typically, there are 
more queries submitted via email than via the telephone; however, the 
burnout factor is not quite as great for staff handling email responses.

You will need at least 2 people to answer the phone.  If your volume of 
calls is more than a staff that size can handle, you will need to hire 
additional staff.

DOCUMENTATION

Every NIC needs to produce a variety of documents and publications, such 
as procedures, handouts, and brochures.  A prime example is the 
documentation a NIC uses as outreach to its customers.  You will 
naturally want these informational items, as with all your documentation, 
to be professionally written, easy for your users to understand, and to 
reflect the professionalism of your organization.  High quality 
documentation is an essential part of a NIC's communication with its 
community.

It is easy to see, therefore, that  you will need at least one staff 
member who is highly qualified to write and format documentation.  If you 
anticipate creating a lot of documents, even simple flyers or handouts, 
this should be a full-time person dedicated to this task.  If you are 
going to write books, user guides, resources guides, or implementation 
guides, you should consider having two documentation people: one who does 
the smaller items, and one who writes the larger documents.  

This staff member might also perform tasks such as interacting with 
printers, or such tasks might be assigned to an administrative support 
person.

INFORMATION SPECIALIST 

The Information Specialist is a key person in the Information Center.  
The Information Specialist can be thought of as the staff person 
providing indirect user support (as compared to the hotline staff who 
interact with users daily).  The Information Specialist finds or prepares 
the data that is presented to users online via information servers such 
as the Gopher or World Wide Web.  This staff member is also the one that 
keeps up to date on developments of relevant applications or services and 
tries to ensure that your users have access to all the information 
pertinent to their needs and interests.

In addition, the Information Specialist often performs the outreach and 
liaison duties that let people know your NIC exists for them, and links 
your NIC to the rest of the Internet community.

This person might also coordinate training for your user community on the 
use of the latest tools or on network access procedures or on some other 
function within the scope of your NIC services.

It is often the case that an Information Specialist acts as Level 2 
support for your hotline staff.  It is also often true that people 
fulfilling direct user support functions also fulfill some Information 
Specialist functions.

It is essential that your NIC have at least one information specialist.  
If your hotline is very busy, or if the scope of your NIC includes a wide 
variety of services, you will probably benefit from hiring more than one 
information specialist.  If you are going to be providing user training 
on an ongoing basis, you should probably have a separate staff person 
dedicated just to training issues.

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

A NIC, being essentially an online environment, usually does not need a 
great deal of administrative support.  However, every NIC definitely 
needs some administrative support.  This person will do routine 
administrative tasks, such as help with report formatting and 
distribution, copying, collating and mailing hardcopy documents, filing, 
interacting with vendors, providing supplies, dealing with timecards, and 
making travel arrangements.  Often a NIC can share administrative support 
with the larger organization of which the NIC is a part; however, if this 
is not possible, an administrative person should be hired.  Also, when 
sharing administrative support, it should be clear that part of the 
assistant's time will be reserved for NIC support duties. 

If your NIC provides any services on a cost recovery basis, such as 
selling documents or charging a fee for training, you will need to have 
someone who can process payments and perform basic accounting chores.  
Again, your parent organization may provide someone whose services you 
can share, but you should be aware that billing chores require quite a 
bit of time.

TECHNICAL STAFF

Each NIC needs access to someone with technical expertise.  Preferably, 
there is a staff member who is technically proficient in implementing 
servers and troubleshooting technical problems that may arise for the 
staff itself.  This person would implement all the software the NIC uses 
in support of its mission, including the FTP server, the Gopher server, 
any mailing list software, and possibly a World Wide Web server.  The 
technical support person would handle any problems that arose in server 
use, perform upgrades, and implement patches as necessary. 

This person might also train other staff in new tools or alert them to 
new features in existing tools.  He or she might also create 
documentation for staff or users regarding technical issues.  

The technical support person would probably also act as a Level 2 support 
person for the hotline staff.

Such a technical person would probably also assist users in implementing 
servers, if that falls within the scope of your NIC services.  

Your NIC may also require special applications programs to be created for 
staff use and a technical person might also be an applications or systems 
programmer.  A technical staff person might also handle issues pertaining 
to the operations of your NIC's local hosts or network. 

MANAGEMENT

Of course, each NIC needs to have someone in charge.  A manager's tasks 
are outlined Section 5 of this Guide.  It is often the case that a 
manager, in addition to leading the efforts to define and follow the 
NIC's scope and future vision, and in addition to performing normal 
management functions, will also take an active role in one or more of the 
above functions, even including acting as Level 2 support for the hotline 
staff.



Section 4. NIC Equipment

This section provides a general idea of some of the basic equipment your 
Network Information Center should have.  Once again, of course, what you 
obtain will depend on your resources.  It is impossible for us to 
anticipate what your specific environment will be, so we can provide here 
only the most general suggestions.

STAFF COMPUTERS

Your hotline personnel should have the equipment that is most commonly 
used by your customers.  In most cases this means that each NIC staff 
member should have either a PC, Unix workstation, or Macintosh on his 
desktop. 

If there are a number of different platforms used on your network, it 
would be a good idea to have a small lab with a representation of the 
site equipment. This lab will be used to test information tools that will 
be provided to the user community and will be available for staff to 
access when solving user queries involving equipment of a type other than 
what is on their own desk.

You should also provide a fast, reliable laser printer for staff use.  If 
you are going to do documents for which you will need to prepare camera 
ready copy, make sure you have access to a suitable facility for 
generating such copy.  

You might also consider support equipment such as a scanner if you are in 
an environment where you make images available online.

SERVER COMPUTER

In addition to the computers your staff uses, you will need to have a 
computer to act as an information server for your users.  It is best if 
this computer can be dedicated to the task of being a server rather than 
having also to act as a personnel workstation.

Your server will be the computer on which you establish an FTP archive, 
implement Gopher, store mailing lists, and run any other services you 
choose to provide.  The type of computer again depends on your 
environment and budget, but in general your server should fulfill the 
following requirements. 

-  Be able to handle as many connections as you expect will access the 
server without degrading performance so that users suffer long waits.  It 
may be difficult to estimate how many connections to expect; remember 
that if you run a server that is accessible from the Internet as well as 
providing access for your users to the Internet, you may have users who 
are not directly your customers accessing your server host as well.  For 
some server programs, you should be able to get an idea of how heavily 
used the program is at other sites by looking at public logs or querying 
a mailing list or the developers.  This information may help you with 
your estimate.

-  Have enough memory to store the amount of information you want to make 
available.

-  Be of a type that many of your customers are comfortable using.

-  Be of a type for which the software exists that you want to run.  That 
is, if you want to run a certain application that you've heard about on 
the Internet, make sure your computer is of a type that will match the 
software available.

GENERAL OFFICE EQUIPMENT

Of course, your staff will need all the usual office equipment and
supplies.  Major facilities that might be overlooked are a copy
machine, a fax machine, and adequate storage space.  The copy machine
and fax machine are obvious.  Storage space sometimes is not thought
of until you need it and find you don't have enough!  Be sure to have
enough file cabinets or shelves available for your staff resource
library, documents to be distributed, and hardcopy literature.

Telephone equipment is also obviously essential to a NIC operation.
You may have many types of phones and phone accessories from which to
choose.  Make sure you have a system that can handle the number of
incoming calls you have or expect.  Also, be sure the phone has the
features, such as hold and transfer options, as well as possible
conferencing calling capabilities, that you anticipate using.  If you
would like a voicemail or answering machine service, you will need to
make arrangements for that as well.


Section 5. NIC Procedures

NIC PROCEDURES

This section discusses how a NIC goes about supporting its day to day 
tasks.

Day to day procedures, as with other aspects of NIC services, will  
depend on what you have defined as your scope.  If your scope  will 
include not only information services, but also registration  services 
and/or operational support, obviously you will need procedures  for each 
of these aspects and these procedures may differ somewhat  from each 
other.  This section provides information that applies most directly to 
the information services a NIC offers.  There are also points made about  
general management concerns, staff support, and security.  

Obviously, anything a NIC does can be considered a routine task.  Rather 
than try to cover everything in one section, however, we have broken out 
some of these tasks into their own sections for ease of reference.  For 
example, documentation efforts are covered more fully in another section, 
and  the Online Tools section discusses that subject in more depth than 
is  covered here.  Some functions, such as Outreach and Liaison, are not 
discussed in this section at all, but will need to be considered when 
planning staff time.

The primary information services tasks  discussed here are:

-  User Assistance
-  Reporting and Analysis
-  Organizing Information
-  Server Maintenance
-  Management Focus 
-  Security Concerns

Let us look at each of the above tasks in some depth.


USER ASSISTANCE

User assistance refers to responding to questions that come in to  the 
network information center.  Users usually contact a NIC by  telephone or 
electronic mail; however, a NIC can also receive  queries via fax or 
postal mail. 


CENTRALIZED ACCESS POINTS

A NIC should have a central phone number that is well-known to users  and 
that can route to several staff members to ensure calls will be answered.  
It is also useful, if possible, to have an answering  machine or 
voicemail system to let users know your hours and to pick up calls if all 
staff must attend a meeting or are otherwise unavailable.  If you do 
instigate a voicemail backup system, it is  advisable to rely on it as 
little as possible during your usual hours of  operation, and very 
important that you return calls promptly once staff are available in 
order to ensure that users perceive high quality service.

It is best to establish a "role" mailbox that is associated with  the NIC 
itself rather than with an individual or individuals.  An electronic mail 
address such as "info@nic.your.net" can stay  constant even if the people 
responding to messages sent to it  change over time.  If you have several 
distinct tasks, you may  wish to have role mailboxes for each task.  Many 
NICs that  also perform registration services, for example, have a role  
mailbox called "hostmaster" (which is a traditional name for  
registration functions).


ARCHIVES

It is also recommended that a NIC establish a centralized archive for  
email messages received at the central "info" mailbox and their  replies.  
This type of archive sets up the means for statistics  gathering, 
reporting, and staff training.  The archive is also there  for staff use 
when researching queries on subjects that may have been  addressed in 
other previous correspondence.  Simply collecting these  into a series of 
monthly files and storing them where staff can access  them is the most 
basic way of creating such an archive.  It may  be possible, however, to 
organize such an archive within query  tracking software you may be 
using.  Another idea is to use WAIS  to index your mail files, which 
would make it easier to search their contents.


TRACKING/LOGGING

Telephone calls received must also be logged and tracked.  An online 
tracking system is preferred because it makes it easier both to generate 
activities reports and to create an information archive that will be of 
use to staff.  However, many NICs do not use an online system, or at 
least start out logging on paper.  Our general advice  here is: log calls 
in the most sophisticated way you can, but  definitely log them!  Paper 
logging is fine if you only need to report  the number of calls.  The 
more you need to track, the worse paper  works.  Logging calls ensures 
that:

-  All calls are tracked.
-  No calls are lost.
-  The user doesn't have to repeat all the information if the call is 
   assigned to another person.
-  The information about the caller is available for statistical 
   analysis.

Typically NICs log such information as:

-  Date and time the call was received.
-  Caller's name, telephone number, email address (if any) and, if 
   needed, postal address.
-  Caller's affiliation (someone at your site, located remotely on your 
   network, using an affiliated network, etc.)
-  Written description of the reason for the call.  The description 
   should be clearly written so that other staff members can understand what 
   the call was about.
-  Code for topic of the call.  Some questions are so common that a NIC 
   can often devise a checklist system to aid staff in speedily logging 
   calls and reduce the amount of text they need to write.
-  Written description of the action taken in response to a query.  If 
   the query takes several steps to resolve, each step should be documented.  
   This is not only useful for checking the current status of the call, but 
   is also helpful for training new staff.  
-  Name of staff member to whom the call was referred for specialized 
   assistance.  Often the staff member initially accepting the query will 
   call on another staff member more knowledgeable in a specific area for 
   help in completing the response.
-  Date the query was finally resolved.
-  Name of staff member(s) handling query.

If a NIC is tracking the time needed to staff the hotline and investigate 
queries, it may also be useful to log the amount of  time spent on the 
phone and on subsequent follow up activities.  If a NIC is also doing 
operational support, additional tracking may be  necessary or tracking in 
more detail might be advisable.  Such  tracking differences might include 
noting the time a problem was finally cleared.  In addition, operational 
calls are often assigned a priority grade, typically ranging from 
"extremely severe--major business disruption; attend to immediately" to 
"enhancement suggestion; deferred until unspecified later date."

Exactly what you track depends on what you need to report or what you 
feel will be useful to review later.  How you track usually depends on 
the resources you have available, the number of queries you have to 
organize, and the degree of need you have to review closed queries.


REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

Once you have logged and tracked your activities, you have the 
information you need to generate reports and analyze trends.


ACTIVITY REPORTS

Most NICs have some reporting requirements defined by their funding 
source or management.  These requirements will obviously contribute to 
determining what the NIC tracks.  Typically NICs track items such as:

-  Number of phone calls
-  Number of email queries
-  Time needed to respond to queries
-  Number of files accessed via FTP
-  Number of connections to a gopher server
-  Number of connections to any other online servers
-  Number of hardcopy documents distributed

It is very useful to keep a historical record of these types of  NIC 
usage if for no other reason than the fact that budgets are often based 
on historical information.  Such numbers can also indicate trends, which 
could serve as justification for requesting additional resources.


TREND ANALYSIS

It is useful to look at more than just numbers, however.  Logs  should be 
reviewed periodically with an eye toward their contents.  What sorts of 
questions are users asking?  What sorts of answers  is the NIC offering?

If there are common questions, the NIC can develop files that can be sent 
in response, thus sparing staff members from having to create and 
re-create the same information over and over again.  These  answers to 
common questions can be fed into online information servers as well.  
Documentation can be created or updated to reflect and respond to user 
concerns.  

If you have several staff members responding to user queries, each may 
not be aware that others are responding to the same type of question.  
Therefore, the review of the logs becomes the easiest way to catch a 
trend.

If you do have several staff members responding to queries, the 
possibility of each giving a slightly different answer to the same 
question grows.  Reviewing staff responses offers the opportunity  of 
providing staff with feedback that can help them improve their responses 
and ensures a uniformly high quality service from the NIC.


ORGANIZING INFORMATION

NIC staff members interact with information in two ways.  The first, 
most obvious interaction occurs in response to a user query.  Often when 
a  user calls, the support person must do some investigation to discover  
the information the user wants.  This is usually a very focused 
investigation that may include online searches, consulting with 
colleagues, telephone inquiries on the user's behalf, or all of these, 
before the staff person returns a response to the user.

NIC staff members also interact with information in a  more ongoing way.  
At least one person on the NIC staff (and  preferably as many as 
possible) should "know what's going on" on the  net.  This task might be 
called information awareness rather than gathering.  It is often the 
difference between a successful NIC and a less successful one.  It is 
certainly the difference between an efficient, responsive NIC, and one 
that users perceive as clueless or terribly slow.

On an ongoing basis, at least one staff member must monitor relevant 
mailing lists, explore the net via gopher, test out new user interfaces, 
and generally keep up with network information  developments.  Doing so 
means that when a question comes up, the NIC staff know where to go to 
find the information needed.  They may even have the answer immediately 
just because they have kept up with  events.  In either case, devoting 
time on an ongoing basis to  monitoring information trends ensures that 
the time it takes NIC staff  to respond to queries, even when they have 
to do some investigation, is lessened considerably.  The more quickly a 
NIC can respond to user needs, the greater the esteem users have for the 
NIC.

Another ongoing information task involves collecting and organizing the 
information the staff will access often.  Obviously the staff cannot 
memorize the answer to every question, but if a question is common, 
neither is it efficient to investigate it in depth every  time it is 
asked.  Therefore, it makes sense to have a central directory to store 
answers to commonly asked questions, pointers  to useful network 
resources, phone numbers of important contacts,  and other frequently 
needed information.  Deciding what information this repository should 
contain, and keeping that information up to date, will take some effort, 
but is worth it for the time it will  save in eliminating redundant 
investigations.


SERVER MAINTENANCE

There are two tasks that can be described as "server maintenance."  
Perhaps the first that comes to mind is the one a more technical staff 
person must do to install the software needed to implement a server.  
This person would also then need to maintain the software, perform 
upgrades, install patches, and troubleshoot  problems.  Often, this staff 
member is also the one who trains  other staff in the procedures to make 
information available to the server.  The second server maintenance task 
refers to providing this information and keeping it up to date.  Both are 
ongoing tasks, essential to a network information center.

Typical types of online services a NIC makes available are discussed in 
the section describing these tools.  They can include:

-  An FTP server
-  An electronic mail server
-  A gopher server
-  A World Wide Web server
-  An electronic mailing list manager
-  A directory server

All of these types of information servers require the first type of 
"implementation" maintenance.  A few of them, however, require less  
effort in the way of "information" maintenance.  For example, an 
electronic mail server provides files from the FTP archive, so it 
requires very little extra information maintenance (probably just the 
help files) than that required for the FTP archive.  Along the same 
lines, an electronic mailing list manager typically requires  little if 
any maintenance from an information specialist, although the technical 
administrator may be required to follow up on trouble reports from time 
to time.

Directory servers also fall into a special category because they are most 
often associated with NICs providing registration services.  Many NICs 
will not have the resources to populate a directory, which typically 
contains contact information for people, because it can be time-consuming 
to collect and maintain the data.  Sometimes a NIC  may provide support 
for the server itself and assist other organizations  with directions 
about how to provide data.

The services that most NICs typically choose to run (and which users even  
expect nowadays) are an FTP archive and a gopher.  Because a gopher  
server is built on a directory structure model, many sites can use the 
same files in their gopher server and their FTP archive.  However, a 
gopher server does require some special files, and it may be that a NIC 
chooses to differentiate at least some of the information available via 
gopher and that available via FTP.

At any rate, both an FTP archive and a gopher server contain 
informational files that must be either located or created and then 
maintained to remain up to date.  This maintenance job requires alertness 
on the part of  an information specialist and a large allotment of time.  
The job of keeping this information up to date falls on top of the effort 
of deciding the scope of the archive and designing the look of the 
gopher.


MANAGEMENT FOCUS

Network Information Center management functions are much like management 
functions everywhere; therefore, good management practices will greatly 
contribute to the success of a NIC.

A NIC manager defines the function of each position, establishes unit and 
personnel objectives, communicates the policies and direction of the 
organization, resolves conflicts, and delegates authority and 
responsibility to the most appropriate staff level.


ESTABLISHING A VISION

It is essential for management to help staff shape and understand a 
vision of what the information center encompasses and where its  future 
lies.  Without such a vision, the NIC will always simply be reacting to 
the latest issue rather than working toward a set of goals.  Some things 
may seem obvious, but it is a good idea  to explicitly state operating 
principles such as:

-  NIC interaction with customers, management, and peers is respectful, 
   courteous, and professional.
-  NIC staff and management will follow through on all commitments made.

In addition, the following are some goals managers can incorporate into 
the management philosophies they use to create a successful organization.

-  Strive to make best use of staff members' strengths.
-  Promote effective delegation and front-line accountability.
-  Create a team that practices open, honest, interactive communications.
-  Encourage staff leadership, development, and accomplishment.

Other important points for managers to remember when shaping their 
priorities include the ideas that:

-  Training is essential to success.
-  Staff members are a NIC's most valuable resource.
-  All staff members grow professionally and personally with the support 
   of each other.
-  Staff do their job best when provided with the proper tools.
-  Errors can be reduced and staff contributions enhanced through the use 
   of cost-effective automation wherever possible.


MANAGING STAFF

Much of what a NIC manager does is centered around establishing a 
creative, supportive environment for NIC staff so that they  can 
accomplish the many tasks for which a NIC is responsible.  The 
combination of the great variety of NIC tasks, the wide-range of network 
information, and the usually limited resources  a NIC has at its 
disposal, makes it advisable to hire the most experienced, multi-faceted 
staff possible so that the NIC benefits  the most from every position.  
Typically, skilled staff members  require direction, but are capable of 
fulfilling their duties without close supervision.

However, it is, of course, necessary for a manager to oversee staff 
activities to some extent.  This provides the manager with the 
opportunity of checking to make sure there are no pending matters not 
receiving the attention they should, of ensuring staff are prioritizing 
tasks most efficiently and of helping them re-prioritize when necessary, 
and of generally monitoring staff performance and morale.  The work loads 
NIC staff members assume, and the requirement to constantly respond to 
the needs of others, can easily lead to staff becoming overloaded or even 
burned out.  A manager needs to monitor closely and take corrective 
action to prevent valuable staff from burning out.


SECURITY CONCERNS

As the primary interface between network policy makers and network users, 
a  NIC plays an important role in influencing and disseminating network 
security policies.  Not only does a NIC inform users of policy and deal 
with security incidents should they arise, but the NIC should also lead 
by setting a good example of basic security practices.


POLICY DISSEMINATION

Every network should have a written description of the acceptable and 
unacceptable uses of that network.  This description is  often referred 
to as an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).  This policy is usually created by 
network managers  and includes  such points as  whether or not the 
network can be used for commercial traffic and statements  about the 
consequences  for illegal use of network resources.  AUPs are often 
influenced by the policies of agencies or organizations providing funding 
for the network.

While NIC personnel might assist in the drafting of the AUP, a NIC's main 
role is  one of posting such a policy as widely as possible and of 
reminding users of its existence.  Such a policy should be available via 
every online information server the NIC runs, and every NIC staff member 
should be very familiar with the policy.

Each NIC should have procedures for staff to follow in the event they 
become aware of a breach of the AUP.

Some networks also have explicit Security Policies.  A NIC should handle 
these in the same way they do AUPs.  


SECURITY INCIDENT HANDLING

A security problem can be anything from someone trying to gain illegal 
access to a system in real time, the discovery of a virus or worm on a 
host, or simply the realization that there is a vulnerability in an 
application or operating system.  A NIC learns of these types of 
occurances either when a user contacts them with a problem, when the 
Network Operations  Center (NOC) relays news of a problem, or from a 
network mailing list or colleague.  A NICmust have procedures for dealing 
with all of these situations so that the damage or portential damage of 
security problems  is  minimized to the greatest degree.

Most typically, the NIC itself is not the place where security problems 
are analyzed and solved, although the NIC may have technical personnel 
available to do so.  Most often technical personnel within the NOC assist 
site system administrators with handling problems.  Often a NOC will hear 
of incidents before the NIC as well.  For these reasons, it is essential 
that the NIC maintain close ties with the NOC.  (It is, of course, always 
advisable for the NIC and NOC to coordinate closely, even regarding 
everyday occurances  that affect users, such as planned outages.)  There 
should be written procedures that delineate the desired interaction and 
lines  of communication between the NIC and NOC with regard to handling 
security problems.

Some networks designate special security contacts or teams.  If this is 
the case, both the NIC and NOC must coordinate with and probably take 
guidance from these designated experts.

Once again, a NIC's main role, especially during a large scale security 
incident, si that of communicating information to users.  With security 
information, it can be important not to reveal too much information, but 
it is essential that site personnel have enough informaiton to make their 
systems more secure and to correct flaws.  Security specials can guide 
the NIC in deciding what information to release, to whom, and how.

At times, a NIC may also be asked to gather information from users so 
that the effect of a security incident can be analyzed afterward.  This 
again is a natural role for a NIC given its common interaction with 
users.

It is essential that a NIC create written guidelines for staff to follow.  
These procedures should be written before an incident occurs and staff 
trained in following them.  Contact information listed in the procedures 
should be regularly updated.  The worse thing that can happen is  for a 
NIC to be caught unprepared for a  major security problem.


SECURITY GUIDANCE

In the same way that a NIC should be prepared for security problems, a 
site should work to prevent them.  There are many things users and site 
administrators can do to prevent problems from happening or minimize 
their impact when they do.  A NIC can help sites become aware of these 
relatively simple procedures.  To do so, a NIC needs to learn these 
procedures, needs to learn what resources on the Internet can help them 
inform users, and needs to follow such procedures themselves.

For example, simple things such as requiring more secure types of 
passwords, and setting file protections  securely make staff aware of the 
importance of security and can be an example to other network sites.

RFC 1244, Site Security Handbook, is a good source for methods sites can 
employ to significantly reduce their vulnerability.


Section 6. Online Information Tools

This section provides information about several online information tools.  
Many of these tools are built on a client-server model, and many NICs 
implement the servers.  However, even if a NIC chooses not to implement a 
server, staff will probably need to be able to help users manipulate the 
clients.  At the very least, every NIC should be aware that these tools 
exist.

It is strongly recommended that a NIC maintain at least an FTP server and 
a Gopher server.  Many NICs also run a mailing list server, a mail server 
that provides files automatically in response to an email message, and a 
World Wide Web server.

This section first gives a brief overview of several Network Information 
Retrieval (NIR) tools.  We then provide more in-depth information on how 
to configure and install WAIS, Gopher, and FTP servers.


QUICK TOOL OVERVIEW

This section provides snapshot descriptions of several information tools.  
More information about what these tools are, how to obtain the software, 
the basics of using these tools, and pointers to mailing lists that 
discuss their implementation features  can be found in the Guide to 
Network Resource Tools written by the EARN Association.  This file can be 
found on the host naic.nasa.gov in the files/general_info directory as 
earn-resource-tool-guide.txt or earn-resource-tool-guide.ps.  Today there 
are also several books about using the Internet that discuss these tools 
from a user point of view.


FTP

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is one of the original network information 
retrieval (NIR) tools, but it requires users to know a lot of facts 
before they can retrieve information.  Before one is able to FTP a file, 
one needs to know that a file exists, the name of the host on which the 
file resides, the directory path on that host to reach the file, the name 
of the file, and the various FTP commands to connect to the host, log in, 
and retrieve the file.  Viewing a file before retrieving it is a problem.  
However, the FTP client is resident on most Unix hosts that have Internet 
connections.


ANONYMOUS FTP

Anonymous FTP is a special use of FTP which allows a site to make files 
available to those who do not have accounts on that host.  The anonymous 
FTP convention uses a special login name of anonymous and a special 
password, usually one's email address.  Most NICs offer an anonymous FTP 
service.


ARCHIE

An archie server collects the names of files in anonymous FTP directories 
into a central database.  Users then use an archie client to search this 
database to discover particular files and the site on which they are 
stored.  Archie was designed to reduce the amount of information users 
need to know before they locate and retrieve a specific file.  An archie 
server requires a substantial commitment of resources, so it is not 
common for every NIC to run one.  However, a NIC should support archie 
clients for its users as these clients make FTP much easier.


GOPHER

The Internet Gopher is a menu-driven Internet information browser.  To an 
information service provider, such as a NIC, Gopher is a valuable tool 
for presenting information to users because it can be used not only to 
organize information but also to create a view of the Internet that can 
be tailored to a particular audience.  Gopher uses a hierarchical 
directory model to structure information.  It can be used to link to many 
types of information located all around the Internet in a 
user-transparent manner.  A Gopher server can link not only files, but 
FTP directories, Telnet sessions, graphics, and more.  (Users need 
supporting utilities in addition to the client software in order to 
access some particular formats of information, such as graphics.).

Users like Gopher because it greatly eliminates the need for them to know 
where information is located, or even that it exists, before they find 
it.  And not only are the clients easy to use, but the servers are easy 
to implement.  (Information on how to implement a server is presented 
later in this Section.)  The collection of information available via the 
network of Gophers is called "Gopherspace."


VERONICA 

Veronica is a tool available from with Gopher that is used to search 
Gopherspace.  Veronica polls Gopherspace and collects the text found in 
Gopher menus into a database.  Users can then search the Veronica 
database to discover, locate, and access  particular information. 


WORLD WIDE WEB

The World Wide Web is a distributed, hypermedia based, Internet 
information browser.  The Web links information from all around the 
Internet in a user-transparent manner via a hypertext and hypermedia 
interface.  It can link files, FTP directories, Gophers, images, sounds, 
and movies; however, it requires supporting software to show images and 
play sounds and such.  It is very user friendly and intuitive to use.  As 
of this writing, though, there is no search mechanism to allow a user to 
easily locate specific information.


DIRECTORY SERVICES

Directory Services is a generic term which refers to a class of tools 
that offer search capabilities on a collection of data that usually 
pertains to people and their contact information (such as phone numbers 
and addresses).  There are several different directory service programs 
(also sometimes referred to as "white pages" programs), some of which are 
standards, but so far not one of them is clearly preferred over the 
others for use throughout the Internet.  Therefore, there is not yet a 
central "Internet Directory" of users or resources.  

There are several different databases of directory information, some of 
which are accessible via different servers, but these databases are not 
linked together.  X.500 is one example of a such directory protocol that 
accesses one worldwide database.  It is an international standard, 
distributed directory service which is built on a hierarchical, 
tree-structure model.  Information about people is entered into the X.500 
Directory according to where they work and where they are located 
geographically.


WAIS

Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) provides both indexing (server) and 
searching (client) capabilities.  Indexes of data offered for searching 
are called WAIS "sources" or ".src" files.  They are stored in a server.  
Clients allow simple "normal-language" queries on these sources.  WAIS 
servers are linked via the Internet, but are not otherwise networked 
together, so a client must explicitly indicate which server to use.  From 
within other tools (e.g. Gopher) usually only one WAIS source is 
available at a time.  "freeWAIS" refers to the freely available version 
of WAIS.  Further information regarding implementing a WAIS server and 
providing access to it from a Gopher server is included later in this 
Section.


SETTING UP FREEWAIS

Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) is a protocol and suite of programs 
for creating and searching full text databases.  The original WAIS 
application was developed by the people at WAIS, Inc., who have since 
stopped developing the freeware version of WAIS.  The project was taken 
over by the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and 
Retrieval tools (CNIDR), who have been developing the software under the 
name freeWAIS.

This section outlines the necessary steps to install, configure and set 
up the freeWAIS Server and client.  It is assumed that you will be 
installing this application on a Unix machine connected to the Internet.  
Your installation may differ depending on the configuration of your Unix 
system;  however, you should be able to install the software with minimum 
configuration changes.  If you are not on a Unix platform, obtain the 
server software appropriate for your system (this is probably available 
from CNIDR as well, or contact the NAIC for pointers) and follow the 
installation directions that accompany it.


FREEWAIS AVAILABILITY

The freeWAIS software is available via anonymous FTP from host 
ftp.cnidr.org in the /pub/NIDR.tools directory.  The file 
freeWAIS-0.2.tar.Z is the Unix source code for the full text indexer, 
database server, and a couple of Unix clients.


FREEWAIS INSTALLATION

After obtaining the freeWAIS distribution, you must first uncompress and 
untar the distribution file.  This will create a directory called 
freeWAIS-0.2, with a number of subdirectories.  There are two important 
files that should be read prior to installation: the README and 
INSTALLATION files.  The information in this document has been derived 
from these two files.

To build the software, first modify the file freeWAIS-2.0/Makefile 
according to the comments to conform to your particular hardware/software 
architecture.  You will have to set the variable TOP, as this is not done 
automatically.  Be sure to comment out the lines that say comment-me.  
For example, we used the directory /usr/local/src/freeWAIS-0.2  as our 
TOP directory in the example below, so our Makefile looks like this:

# set this for your site.  This syntax only works in SunOS,
# for other UNIX-like OS's set this to this directory.
# TOP:sh = pwd
# or fill in the blank for other OS's
TOP = /usr/local/src/freeWAIS-0.2
# comment-me:
# @echo You must set "\$$(TOP)" to point to the freeWAIS src
# directory

Then simply type
% make

Most of the software should be made automatically.  However the X windows 
user interface may not be made due to your particular system's 
installation of the X windows base software.  New with this release is an 
Imakefile, which can be used to create a Makefile that includes the 
locations of the X software for a particular site.  If you can build X 
applications, you should be able to build xwais.  For more information, 
see the README file in the x directory.

If all went well you should have three binary files in the 
freeWAIS-0.2/bin directory: waissearch,  waisindex and waisserver.

For information on how to create a WAIS server, make a WAIS index, and 
search a WAIS index, consult the man pages or read the file README.


SETTING UP A GOPHER SERVER

This section outlines the necessary steps to install, configure, and set 
up the Unix Gopher Server and client.  It is assumed that you will be 
installing this application on a Unix machine connected to the Internet.  
Your installation may differ depending on the configuration of your Unix 
system; however, you should be able to install the software with minimum 
configuration changes.  If you are not on a Unix platform, obtain the 
server software appropriate for your system (this is probably available 
from host boombox.micro.umn.edu as well, or contact the NAIC for 
pointers) and follow the installation directions that accompany it.

For an in-depth description of Gopher, read the Internet Gopher User's 
Guide by Paul Linder from the University of Minnesota.  This guide can be 
obtained via FTP from host boombox.micro.umn.edu.  Retrieve the file 
pub/gopher/docs/GopherGuide_Jun15b.txt (or .ps ).

The University of Minnesota's (UMN) Unix Gopher server, gopherd, can 
easily access WAIS databases, which makes it easy to integrate WAIS 
materials into "Gopherspace."  This section of the Guide also describes 
how to incorporate WAIS services within Gopher.  If you plan to do so, 
however, it is suggested that you compile each application separately 
before you try to integrate them.


GOPHER SOFTWARE AVAILABILITY

The Gopher software is available via Anonymous FTP at host 
boombox.micro.umn.edu in the /pub/gopher/Unix directory.  The current 
version (as of early December 1993) is 2.010.  The file gopher2.010.tar.Z 
contains the Unix Gopher server and client.  Download the file to your 
local machine in binary mode.


INSTALLING THE UNIX GOPHER DISTRIBUTION

After obtaining the Gopher distribution, you must first uncompress and 
untar the distribution file.  This will create a directory called 
gopher2.010.  Before compiling, read the files gopher2.010/README and 
gopher2.010/doc/INSTALL.

You will need to configure two files in order to compile the Gopher 
application.  These are Makefile.config and conf.h.

In the list below are Makefile variables that you will need to set.  This 
list is followed by some suggested settings for those variables.   Some 
of the more important parameters in Makefile.config are:

-  PREFIX    The base pathname where everything is installed.
-  CLIENTDIR  Where the client (Gopher) is installed.
-  CLIENTLIB  Where the client help file is installed
-  SERVERDIR  Where the server (gopherd) and the server         
   configuration file (gopher.conf) are installed
-  MAN1DIR    Where the man pages for Gopher are installed.
-  MAN8DIR    Where the man pages for gopherd are installed.
-  SERVERDATA  Where the server looks for its Gopher data.
-  SERVERPORT  The port gopherd listens to.  (Port 70 is the         
   standard Gopher port.)

Suggested settings:

PREFIX = /usr/local
CLIENTDIR = $(PREFIX)/bin
CLIENTLIB = $(PREFIX)/lib
SERVERDIR = $(PREFIX)/etc
MAN1DIR = $(PREFIX)/man/man1
MAN8DIR = $(PREFIX)/man/man8
SERVERDATA = /home/gopher
SERVERPORT = 70

In the list below are important conf.h variables that you will need to 
set.  This list is followed by some suggested settings for these 
variables.   Some of the more important parameters to be set in the 
conf.h file are:

-  CLIENT1_HOST, CLIENT2_HOST  The host(s) to contact first.
-  CLIENT1_PORT, CLIENT2_PORT  The port(s) to contact first.

For example, to have your client contact the host anyhost.arc.nasa.gov 
only, you would modify the entries, substituting your hostname for 
"anyhost.arc.nasa.gov" in the example below.

#define CLIENT1_HOST "anyhost.arc.nasa.gov"
#define CLIENT2_HOST "gopher2.tc.umn.edu"
#define CLIENT1_PORT 70
#define CLIENT2_PORT 0


USING WAIS WITH GOPHER

If you do not intend to use WAIS with Gopher, skip to the next section on 
compiling the Gopher distribution.  If you do intend to use Gopher to 
perform WAIS searches, you must already have compiled the freeWAIS 
distribution.  To let the Gopher code know you want to use WAIS, go to 
your Gopher source code directory and type the following commands.  
Substitute your WAIS source code directory for waisdir in the following 
commands.

%ln -s /waisdir/ir .
%ln -s /waisdir/bin .
%ln -s /waisdir/ui .


COMPILING AND INSTALLING THE DISTRIBUTION

You should now be ready to compile the distribution.

To make only the client, type:
% make client

To make only the server type:
% make server

To make everything, just type:
% make

To install everything, type:
% make install

To install only the client, type:
% (cd gopher; make install)

To install only the server, type:
% (cd gopherd; make install)


SETTING UP WU FTPD

WU-FTPD is an enhanced FTP daemon developed at Washington University, 
maintainers of the huge wuarchive FTP site, wuarchive.wustl.edu.  
Although it is possible to set up a generic FTP server with the software 
provided with your system, the WU FTPD server has many more features 
which are useful both to the server operator by providing for logging 
capabilities and to the FTP server user by producing banners and 
automatic messages.

This document outlines the necessary steps to install, configure and set 
up the WU FTPD server.  It is assumed that you will be installing this 
application on a Unix machine connected to the Internet.  Specific 
installation details may differ depending on the configuration of your 
Unix system, however you should be able to install the software with 
minimum configuration changes.


WU FTPD AVAILABILITY

The WU FTPD software is available via anonymous FTP from host 
wuarchive.wustl.edu in the /packages/wuarchive-ftpd directory. The 
lastest release of the server at time of printing is version 2.1c, so you 
should retrieve the file wu-ftpd-2.1c.tar.Z.  This is the Unix source 
code for the server.


INSTALLING WU FTPD

After obtaining the WU FTPD distribution, you must first uncompress and 
untar the distribution file.  This will create a directory named 
wu-ftpd-2.1c with a number of subdirectories.  There are two important 
files that should be read prior to installation: README_NOW and 
INSTALLATION.  The information in this Guide has been derived from those 
two files.


COMPILATION

Step 1.  Edit the src/pathnames.h to conform to your local system needs.  
The following excerpt is an example of a typical src/pathnames.h file.  
However, it is your choice as to where to place your files.

#define _PATH_FTPUSERS  "/usr/local/etc/ftpusers"
#define _PATH_FTPACCESS "/usr/local/etc/ftpaccess"
#define _PATH_EXECPATH  "/bin/ftp-exec"
#define _PATH_PIDNAMES  "/usr/local/etc/ftpd-pids/ftp.pids-%s"
#define _PATH_CVT       "/usr/local/etc/ftpconversions"
#define _PATH_XFERLOG   "/usr/local/adm/ftplog"
#define _PATH_PRIVATE   "/usr/local/etc/ftpgroups"

#ifndef _PATH_UTMP
#define _PATH_UTMP      "/etc/utmp"
#define _PATH_WTMP      "/var/adm/wtmp"
#define _PATH_LASTLOG   "/var/adm/lastlog"
#endif

#define _PATH_BSHELL    "/bin/sh"
#define _PATH_DEVNULL   "/dev/null"

#ifdef  HOST_ACCESS
#define _PATH_FTPHOSTS  "/usr/local/etc/ftphosts"
#endif

For an more detailed explanation of what each variable is for, see the 
INSTALL file.

Step 2.  Type

% build xxx

where xxx is the three letter abbreviation for your system.  To get a 
list of systems, type

% build help

For example, if you are running the server on a SunOS 4.1.3 system you 
would type build s41.

Step 3.  If the program compiles without errors, type

% build install

This will install the binaries in the directories you specified in 
src/pathnames.h.

Step 4.  Now copy the ftpconversions, ftpusers, and ftpgroups files to 
the locations specifed in pathnames.h.  For exampxles of these 
configuration files see the directory doc/examples.  See also Appendix B 
for examples of the configurations files we currently have running on the 
NAIC system. 

Step 5.  It is very important to set up your public FTP directory 
carefully as to not create any security holes.  Very detailed 
instructions are available in the ftpd man page.  Simply type

% man ftpd

Carefully set up your FTP directory with the ownership and protection 
suggested.  A failure to do so may leave your system open to hackers.

Step 6.  Run bin/ckconfig to make sure all of the configuration files 
have been installed correctly. 

Step 7.  Edit the /etc/inetd.conf files and update the FTP entry:

ftp  stream  tcp  nowait   root  /usr/local/etc/ftpd  ftpd -aoi

Step 8. Finally, perform a kill -HUP on the inetd process so the changes 
you made to the inetd.conf file take effect:

% kill -HUP 555



Section 7. Documentation Tasks

It is the responsibility of a NIC to inform its users about resources  
available on the network, to collect and maintain NIC referral 
information, to facilitate use of the network, and in general, meet the 
needs of its users by any reasonable means possible.

NICs publish and distribute a variety of documentation in order to 
provide the best possible information and assistance to their user 
communities.  Traditionally, NICs have placed a strong emphasis on online 
media for information dissemination, encouraging their users to retrieve 
files and documentation via the file transfer protocol (FTP) and other 
means.  However, supplying users with hardcopy documentation is also a 
very useful mechanism for keeping users informed as well as educating the 
novice user or enhancing even the seasoned user's networking experience.

This section briefly discusses several issues of relevance to the written 
creation and dissemination of information.  Issues discussed include the 
role of documentation in providing education and outreach, marketing and 
public relations documents, establishing a reference document repository, 
and format and design issues.


EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

An effective NIC takes the initiative to educate its community on the use 
of existing or new networking tools such as protocols or information 
retrieval services and applications.  Documentation about such tools is 
part of the ongoing education process that a NIC performs.

NIC-produced documentation could be in the form of manuals and tutorials 
or simply a series of single page handout sheets for helping users learn 
new software applications or network-wide applications to which the user 
community will connect via the network.  Informational assistance 
documentation may be as small as postcard-sized mini-guides or may be as 
large and comprehensive as a multi-chapter book.  NICs often write 
newsletters to keep their user constituency informed of new network 
developments, services and other relevant news.  Similarly, writing 
articles about your NIC activities for publication in others' newsletters 
is useful in to spreading the word about your NIC and reaching many 
potential users.


MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

Another type of documentation that a NIC should produce is marketing and 
public relations literature.  This is the documentation that lets the 
user community and the greater networking world know about the existence 
of your NIC, and comes in the form of press releases, promotional 
brochures and other literature, posters, direct mail pieces such as 
brochure and postcards, and newsletters.


REFERENCE DOCUMENT REPOSITORY

NICs usually maintain some form of an in-house documentation repository 
in which they deposit reference books, technical papers, bibliographies, 
and related material that will be used in their hotline and reference 
activities.  Some NICs use sophisticated means to abstract, catalog, and 
index their repositories, especially if these repositories will also be 
available to users.  Ideally, you would want to keep track of the 
documents in your repository via a database.  Alternatively, you can 
maintain lists of documents in online files that can be easily accessed 
for searching, and updated when necessary.

Another way that a NIC keeps pace with new developments is to subscribe 
to newsletters published by other NICs, and to technical journals that 
focus on pertinent computing and networking issues.  These publications 
are also kept in the document repository for quick reference by NIC staff 
because they often contain information that helps staff assist users.


FORMAT AND DESIGN ISSUES

It is beneficial for the documentation you produce to have a consistent 
look or style as much as possible across all document platforms.  One of 
the simplest ways this can be accomplished is by creating a logo that 
represents your organization, deciding on a standard formatting style for 
your hardcopy documents, and including your logo in all the documents you 
produce and distribute.  Readers respond to illustrations and artwork, in 
both color and black and white, and including some of these in your 
documents will increase the level of attention readers pay to your 
documents.  If you have a consistent design, users will come to recognize 
your documents and associate them with your services, which means they 
may be more likely to actually read them! 

Most NICs offer their users online access to documentation.  Many NICs 
also offer some form of hardcopy documentation.  Ideally, the hardcopy 
documents are identical in content to the online documents.  Although the 
format of hardcopy published documentation may deviate considerably from 
the online form (for example, the hardcopy document may contain graphics 
and other illustrations that are difficult to represent in an ASCII text 
file), it is crucial that both formats contain the same basic 
information.

Online documentation for informational purposes should be written in 
either ASCII text or PostScript format.  In any case, an online file 
repository should contain a README file written in ASCII text that 
describes the contents of the directory where it is stored and gives the 
user some indication of what he can expect when he retrieves files from 
that directory.  Minimally, a README file should indicate the name of the 
host machine, the pathname of the file for retrieval purposes, and the 
date the file was last updated.  Any time a new file is added to the 
directory or older files deleted, the README file must be edited and 
updated to reflect the change.

In addition, online files readable via servers such as Gopher and the 
World Wide Web should also have a  format and content that is consistent 
with the rest of your documentation.




Section 8. Outreach and Liaison Activities

One of the most important challenges a NIC faces is that of letting its 
users know of its existence.  No matter how excellent your services are, 
if users remain unaware of them, they are useless. There are several 
methods you can consider that serve to let users know what services are 
available to them.


ELECTRONIC MAILING LISTS

Mailing lists are probably the most time-honored way of contacting people 
on a network.  If you are establishing your NIC after the network it 
serves has been in operation for some time, you will probably have a more 
difficult time gathering contacts for your mailing list.  Some of the 
other outreach efforts mentioned below can be used to offer users the 
opportunity of letting you know they would like to be added to a list.

Do you need more than one mailing list?  Your NIC probably performs 
several different functions, so you might want different lists that 
concentrate on different functions.  For example, you might want a list 
that provides news about your information activities, along with another 
list providing information about technical upgrades, and perhaps a list 
for discussing a particular project or topic.

Some of the things to consider when creating an electronic mailing list 
are:

-  Whom do you want to reach?  Do you want to reach every user?  Or do 
   you want to reach a representative for each site or group?
-  Will the list be oriented toward discussions or used for 
   announcements?
-  Can anyone join the list or will it be open only to those a list owner 
   accepts?  That is, will it be an "open" list or a "closed" list?
-  Will the list be moderated (every message screened and forwarded by a 
   moderator) or nonmoderated (users able to send whatever message they like 
   to the list and each message seen by everyone on the list)?
-  Will the list be managed manually or by software?  If by software, 
   which package will be used?


HANDOUTS AND BROCHURES

Essential to every NIC is at least one paper handout describing its 
services and contact information.  Some NICs do fancier brochures; most 
have several handouts describing different procedures or resources.  As 
most NICs have a significant percentage of their audience made up of 
people who are new to networking, and as online interfaces to the network 
are only in the first stages of user friendly sophistication, it is 
important to provide some information in hardcopy.  Even many 
sophisticated users prefer some reference material in paper.  It is 
undeniably easier to hand or send someone a flyer than to spend time 
explaining something complex.

It will soon become apparent what services should be documented on paper 
(in addition to the essential services/contact handout). Given the ease 
of maintaining and accessing Gopher servers, possibly the only other 
thing really necessary for a NIC to document is how to get a Gopher 
client and how to point it at the NIC Gopher.  More than likely, however, 
you will also have handouts documenting the use of other servers you 
provide.

When determining what you will document on paper, there are several 
questions that should be considered:

-  What will the cost of printing this material be, and are those costs 
   within your available resources?
-  Who is your target audience for each document?
-  How many handouts should you print at a time?  Remember, network 
   information is very dynamic, so there is always  the risk when you choose 
   to lower costs by printing   in bulk that the information will become 
   stale and the handout unusable.  Keep the dynamic nature of information 
   in mind when creating hardcopy handouts, too, so you can limit references 
   to items you suspect will change soon or often.
-  What style will you choose to represent your NIC?  It is  beneficial 
   from a marketing point of view if all your handouts  follow a uniform 
   format and style.  Will you have time to create such a look?  Will you 
   have a person responsible for overseeing and editing your printed 
   documents and maintaining the standards you have created?


CONFERENCES

It may be appropriate for you to exhibit at conferences attended by your 
users.  This gives you an opportunity to talk with people in person, 
demonstrate your services, and distribute flyers or other information.  
Even though you probably will not be able to interact with a high ratio 
of users one-on-one, those that you do talk with will carry back more 
solid information about you than less direct contact gives people, and 
their word of mouth to their colleagues will serve to continue the 
outreach effort you started at the conference. A conference is also a 
venue at which you can distribute flyers about your services, which will 
tell people how to contact you and which will advertise your mailing 
lists.  Often people take written information even if they do not stop 
for a full demonstration or discussion with you.

Conference attendance is worthwhile for the above reasons, but before 
deciding to attend, you should answer the following questions:

-  Will a sufficient percentage of conference attendees be the audience 
   my NIC wants to reach?
-  What are the costs of exhibiting at the conference?  Do you have the 
   resources to cover these costs?
-  How much time would someone need to spend at the conference?  Do you 
   have people with this much time to spare?  consider what other tasks 
   might be deferred and their relative importance to conference attendance.
-  Do you have any staff that are knowledgeable in setting up conference 
   exhibits?  (This can be a time-consuming and confusing thing to do.  
   There are many details to attend to and seemingly hidden costs.)
-  What will be the criteria for judging whether conference attendance 
   was worthwhile?


LIAISON RELATIONSHIPS

There are several reasons a NIC needs to establish close working 
relationships with other groups.  A NIC is only one group users interact 
with during the course of their work days.  If the NIC can identify and 
coordinate with other groups the user might contact, both the NIC and the 
user benefit.  Examples of such groups might be other hardware or 
software support groups, professional societies pertinent to your user 
audience, libraries, or providers of other services of interest to your 
audience.

Establishing strong working relationships with such groups means that 
they will learn about your services and can appropriately refer users to 
you when the users themselves might be unaware of your existence.  In 
this way, you can use such liaison relationships as indirect outreach 
vehicles.  They are also beneficial, of course, when a user contacts you 
for information about a service you know one of these groups provides.  
When you refer the user correctly, it also reflects well on your service.


PRODUCTS

If it is within the scope of your NIC to develop more formal "products" 
(i.e. something tangible that you can offer, possibly even for a fee), 
you can use these products and their distribution channels as forms of 
outreach as well.  It may seem odd to suggest this as a form of outreach 
as it must seem, if you have a product, as though you have the same 
problems of making people aware of it.  However, news of a good product 
will spread quickly, and you may find more people contacting you than 
ever before.  All these people can be made aware of your other services 
as well.  Examples of types of possible products are documents, training 
seminars, or software applications.


OTHER ONLINE CHANNELS

There are thousands of electronic mailing lists and newsgroups accessible 
from the Internet.  There are many that are set up specifically for 
announcements of different products or services.  You can use these lists 
to let people know of your services.  There may be specific interest 
group lists that many of your users read, even if they are not lists you 
maintain.  If it is within the scope of the list, you may be able to post 
information to these as well.  Also, even if you don't post announcements 
to a list, if a member of your staff is active on the right lists 
(especially if he also uses a signature file that identifies where he 
works), your users are reminded that your NIC exists.  (Be careful that 
staff post professionally to mailing lists when they are also 
representing your NIC.)

Other valuable online outreach channels are the network information tools 
discussed in more depth elsewhere in this Guide.  The ease with which an 
Internet Gopher user can navigate through "gopherspace" on the Internet 
means that information you make available via gopher can get far greater 
distribution that you could probably accomplish more directly.  As other 
tools, such as clients of the World Wide Web, become more widely 
distributed, they will offer a whole new forum for outreach.  In the near 
future, users can have an interface to the network, such as a gopher or 
the Web, installed on their desktop for them when they get their 
computers.  Such an interface can be locally configured and should 
contain information explaining what the NIC is and how to contact it.  As 
user interfaces to the network progress, the old NIC function of 
answering a hotline should give way to a trend of obtaining and 
formatting information for online retrieval by people actively using the 
network.



Section 9. Overview of Useful Resources

There are many resources available via the Internet with which a NIC 
should become acquainted.  These resource provide information about 
network services, technical information, and network developments.  They 
represent methods a NIC can use to keep abreast of the dynamic network 
information environment.  They may be grouped in the following general 
categories:

  -  RFCs, FYIs, STDs, and Internet Drafts
  -  Files and file collections
  -  Information Tools
  -  Directory Services
  -  Online services
  -  Online mailing lists
  -  Organizations
  -  Network Information Centers


RFCS, FYIS, STDS, AND INTERNET DRAFTS

The online documents in this section are basic Internet references.  
Every NIC should know about them, know how they are related, know the 
scope of the contents of each category of document, know where their 
primary repositories on the Internet are, and know how to retrieve them.  
A NIC will find several of them directly useful to their work and may 
even consider contributing to the body of documents.

Several NICs store these documents on the local network so that users 
can access them more directly.  This is a large commitment of online 
storage space, however.  It may make more sense to put pointers to these 
documents, or the subset of them you consider relevant for your 
constituency, on a Gopher server.

Request For Comments (RFC) documents are online working notes of the 
Internet research and development community.  A document in this series 
may be on essentially any topic related to computer communication, and 
may be anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard.  
Many RFCs are descriptions of network protocols or services, some report 
policy recommendations, and many are merely informational.  Almost 1700 
RFCs have been published since 1969.  Because of the great number of 
RFCs, two subseries and a draft series were created to make it easier for 
readers to identify the status and type of an RFC.  These other series, 
FYIs and STDs, are discussed  in the next several bullets.

For information on locating and retrieving RFCs, send a message to
rfc-info@isi.edu with help: ways_to_get_rfcs as the text of your
message.

For Your Information (FYI) documents are a subseries of the RFC series 
of online documents.  FYIs are designed to provide general and 
introductory information to users of the Internet, although they are not 
restricted to being either general or non-technical.  The FYI series was 
created to help readers identify those RFCs that were meant to be 
informational.  For more information about the FYI series, read RFC 
1150/FYI 1, F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.:  Introduction to the F.Y.I. Notes.  FYIs 
can be retrieved in the same manner as RFCs.

Internet Standard (STD) documents are a subseries of RFCs that contain 
only those RFCs that have been tested and declared Internet Standard 
protocols.  Unless an RFC also has an STD number, it is not a standard.  
For more information about the STD series, read RFC 1310, The Internet 
Standards Process, and RFC 1311, Introduction to the STD Notes.  STDs can 
be retrieved in the same manner as RFCs.

Internet Drafts (I-Ds) were created to provide an informal means for 
writers to receive comments on ideas for protocols or services while 
their documentation was still in draft form.  Most, but not all, Internet 
Drafts start out with the aim of becoming RFCs.  Most Internet Drafts are 
the result of work performed by a working group of the Internet 
Engineering Task Force (IETF).

As with RFCs, there are several repositories for Internet Drafts.  For 
information on how to locate and retrieve Internet Drafts, retrieve the 
file ietf/1directories.txt from the host venera.isi.edu.


FILES AND FILE COLLECTIONS

These files are compilations of material on different specific topics.
NICs can often consult these sources for pointers that will assist
users.  Some of these files are maintained on a volunteer basis.
Remember that all Internet information is volatile, so this list may
have changed slightly by the time you read this section.  Of course,
users themselves may be interested in these lists directly; many NIC
Gopher servers contain pointers to them.

  The Internet Services List (Compiled by Scott Yanoff, 
yanoff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu).  This  file is a comprehensive listing of 
special Internet connections categorized according to subject matter.  
Under each subject title is a list of Telnet, FTP, or Gopher sites with 
relevant information pertaining to that particular subject.  The file is  
maintained and updated on a regular monthly basis by Scott Yanoff.  The 
file is available on various Gopher servers, however to be certain that 
you have the most current information, it is suggested that you obtain 
the file from the host csd4.csd.uwm.edu, the pathname of the file is  
/pub/inet.services.txt.  Sites that do not have access to FTP or lack the 
ability to use either Telnet or Gopher can request the file via email 
from yanoff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu.

  The Inter-Network Mail Guide by John J. Chew with further
modifications by Scott Yanoff.  This is a "how-to" guide for
addressing and sending email to and from other networks.  It is
organized by network name.  Within the network name, addressing and
point of contact information is given.  The file is updated on a
regular basis.  It can be FTPed from the host csd4.csd.uwm.edu using
the pathname /pub/internetwork-mail.guide.  It is also available
through the Gopher servers at Internet sites naic.nasa.gov and
is.internic.net.

  Internet Accessible Library Catalogs & Databases, co-authored
by Art St. George and Ron Larsen.  A listing of over 100 online
library catalogs and databases both nationally and internationally,
the Internet Accessible Library Catalogs and Databases includes
pointers to library catalogs, databases, Campus-Wide Online
Information Systems (CWIS), and bulletin board services.  Each entry
contains a description of the service, instructions on its use and how
to access it, and contacts for further information.  Examples of some
the listings are Columbia University's online library catalog (CLIO),
Pennsylvania's State University online card catalog systems (PENpages)
and the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL).

  This file is available online on the Gopher server at Internet
site is.internic.net or via anonymous FTP from the host
is.internic.net as pathname
  /infosource/getting-started/things-to-do-internet/
    resource-lists/library-list
This catalog may be retrieved as a single large file or as
several smaller files containing individual chapters.

  Internet Monthly Report is a vehicle to report the
accomplishments, milestones, and problems discovered by organizations
participating in the Internet.  It is often a good source for finding
out what different groups are doing and the status of certain
projects.  A subscription to the Internet Monthly Report may be
obtained by sending electronic mail to the mailbox
imr-request@isi.edu.

  Internet Statistics.  This file contains an international
connectivity list, the Internet Domain survey, growth and size
information about various networks and services, and international
email connections.  The file may be obtained by connecting to the
Gopher server at the host is.internet.net and stepping through the
menu items to Internet Statistic, Size and Connectivity.

  The Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication (a.k.a.
"December's list"). Compiled/copyright John December (decemj@rpi.edu).
The purpose of this file is to list pointers to descriptive
information about the Internet, computer networks, and topics related
to computer-mediated communications (CMC).  It is geared towards an
audience that is just getting started on the Internet, as well those
that have some familiarity with the Internet, especially with how to
use FTP, email, and/or USENET news groups.  This is a "living
document" so the author welcomes updates and additions.  The file is
available on various Gopher servers, including naic.nasa.gov, and can
be anonymously FTPed from the host ftp.rpi.edu using pathname
pub/communications/internet-cmc.

  Guide to Network Resource Tools, EARN Association.  As the title 
states, this is a guide to the various network resource tools, such as 
Gopher, archie, and the World Wide Web, as well as many others.  The 
guide is divided into five sections, classified by their main purpose.  
Each section is then broken down into subsections of what is the tool, 
who can use the tool, how to get the tool, how to use it, and learning 
more about it.  The guide is available online in either ASCII or 
PostScript formats.  It is accessible via Gopher or FTP from host 
naic.nasa.gov.

  The Internet Companion: A Beginners Guide to Global Networking, by 
Tracy LaQuey.  This file is available online via FTP from Internet site 
world.std.com as pathname /OBS/Tracy.LaQuey.  It contains material from 
the book of the same name which introduces very basic Internet concepts 
to naive and potential users.

  Zen and the Art of the Internet. by Brendan Kehoe.  The first edition 
of the book is still available as an online file from host 
cs.widener.edu.  It is advisable to FTP the README file there first.  
Many gophers also provide access to the online version.  The file is an 
introduction for the novice user and discusses topics such as electronic 
mail, the domain naming system, and network information tools.

  The InterNIC InterActive.  InterNIC Information Services publishes a 
bi-monthly newsletter, the InterNIC InterActive, covering network 
information services issues of interest to the entire community, such as 
tools, resources, training opportunities, and networking organizations.  
InterNIC InterActive also details existing and new services provided by 
all three areas of the InterNIC: Information Services, Directory and 
Database Services, and Registration Services.  To subscribe to the 
InterNIC InterActive, send email to interactive-request@is.internic.net.  
Indicate in your message whether you would like to receive the newsletter 
in hardcopy format, electronic format, or both.


INFORMATION TOOLS

The resources in this section present Internet information via a 
hypertext or point-and-click format.

  NICLink (CD-ROM).  NICLink is a service offered by the InterNIC 
Information Center as part of InfoSource.  It is useful for those who 
currently do not have Internet access but plan to do so.  The CD is in 
hypertext format for easy access to a vast amount of Internet resources 
and tools.

  Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, Electronic Frontier Foundation.  
This guide was written for the novice user and assumes that the user has 
had little or no experience with the network communications.  It explains 
in very basic terms how to join and general networking terms (FTP, email, 
etc.).  It also has a fairly large resource and tool section. The guide 
is available online via anonymous FTP from host ftp.eff.org using 
pathname /pub/EFF/papers/big-dummys-guide.txt or via various Gopher 
servers on the net.

  Internet Cruise.  Merit's  Cruise of the Internet is a tutorial for new 
and experienced Internet users.  The Cruise tutorial is computer-based 
and runs on either Macintosh or DOS-compatible computers.  For more 
information send email to nis-info@nic.merit.edu and in the body of the 
message type either get merit.cruise2.mac.readme or get 
merit.cruise2.win.readme.  These files are also accessible via FTP from 
host nic.merit.edu as /internet/resources/cruise.mac and 
/internet/resources/cruise.dos. 


DIRECTORY SERVICES

The directory services listed in this section are white pages services, 
that is, they are tools used to find out information about people.  There 
is no central directory of Internet users that lists the contact 
information for everyone that uses the Internet.  There are databases 
that list subsets of users, and vasious tools that use different means of 
discovering information about users.  This section lists three common 
tools.

  Whois.  Whois is a white pages tool that is especially useful for 
locating contacts for registered Internet networks and domains, which are 
the types of people NICs often try to find.  Whois was developed as an 
access tool for the registration information now maintained by the 
InterNIC Registration Services contractor; however, the protocol has been 
used at other sites for access to other databases.  In addition, the 
registration services Whois data is accessible via other protocols such 
as WAIS and X.500 and can return more than traditional white pages 
information (for example, you can search on a network number or domain 
name).  For information about Whois, consult the EARN Association's  
Guide to Network Resource Tools available on the host naic.nasa.gov as  
files/general_info/earn-resource-tool-guide.txt or .ps.

  Netfind.  Netfind is a white pages tool for the Internet.  Given the 
name of a person on the Internet and the person's location, Netfind 
attempts to return the phone number and email address of that person.  
Netfind works by using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the 
finger protocol, so it cannot find email addresses for people who send 
mail through gateways.  Netfind only works under SunOS 4.0 or later.  For 
information on using Netfind, consult the EARN Association's  Guide to 
Network Resource Tools.

  X.500.  X.500 is a hierarchical, distributed directory service.  Unlike 
the current Whois protocol, X.500 has the capability of linking databases 
distributed throughout the Internet into a worldwide Directory.  It is 
mainly used today to store and access information about people and 
organizations.  NASA uses the X.500 protocol to link information about 
personnel at the different NASA Centers.  For more information about 
X.500 in general, consult the EARN Association's  Guide to Network 
Resource Tools.  For information about NASA's use of X.500, contact the 
NAIC.


ONLINE SERVICES

These particular online services are some the NAIC has found helpful 
and that we thought other NICs should know about.

  Campus Wide Information Systems (CWIS).  CWIS is an online service 
provided to a college, university, company or institution as a central 
source of information.  Each CWIS can offer many types of information, 
for example access to the campus directory, a calendar of events, or 
information about the surrounding community.  A CWIS is maintained on one 
or a few campus computers and then accessed via public terminals or 
remote sites.  CWIS can be accessed via Telnet or Gopher servers.  There 
are an increasing number of CWIS sites and as such are a becoming an 
important tool for distributing local information globally and 
vice-versa.

  A current CWIS list is available from the InfoSource at the InterNIC 
Information Center or via FTP from host sunsite.unc.edu using the 
pathname /pub/docs/about-the-net/cwis/cwis-l.  For questions regarding 
the CWIS-L listserver contact hallman@gibbs.oit.unc.edu

  InfoSource at the InterNIC.  InfoSource is an online repository of 
Internet reference data.  New user materials, references to network 
tools, and pointers to other Internet groups and service providers are 
just a small sampling of what is contained in this collection.  The 
InfoSource is accessible via Gopher, WAIS, FTP, archie, Telnet, and 
electronic mail.  To submit a document or resource for inclusion in 
InfoSource or distribution on the nis mailing list, send email to 
scout@internic.net.

  The Virtual Reference Desk.  This service is provided by the University 
of California, Irvine campus and is a compilation of "electronic 
bookmarks" of information and resources from computers that are 
geographically dispersed.  The Virtual Reference Desk is available via 
Gopher on the host peg.cwis.uci.edu.  The point of contact for this 
effort is cjboyer@uci.edu.


ONLINE MAILING LISTS

In this section we briefly summarize a number of useful Internet 
announcement lists, online discussion lists  and other sources that, in 
general, are informational rather than technical in nature.  Users who 
subscribe to announcement lists receive information in the form of 
announcements via email.  Users who subscribe to discussion lists 
actually participate in online discussions via email.  Discussion lists 
may or may not be moderated by a person who performs  the administrative 
function of screening mail that is sent to the list.  Other information 
sources include centrally located mailboxes that are administered by an 
information center or other entity responsible for information 
dissemination.  Typically, email sent to these mailboxes will be answered 
by reference desk staff members.  The lists  below are grouped according 
to category.

ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS

  nis@is.internic.net.  This list aims to serve network information 
service providers and end users. It is a group effort of people 
throughout the Internet to concentrate announcements of new resources 
onto one list. It is moderated, and contains only announcements of new 
tools and resources available over the Internet.  It is a goal of this 
list to maintain a low volume of traffic, therefore this is not a 
discussion list.

  If you would like to stay current on network services without having to 
read every mailing list, join the nis-list. If you would like more 
information about participating in the nis-list by becoming a monitor, 
send a note to scout@internic.net.  To subscribe to the list, send email 
to:

  listserv@is.internic.net
  in the body of the message type:
  subscribe nis <your name>

  rfc-announce@nic.ddn.mil.  Members of this list receive announcements 
of new Requests for Comments  (RFCs).  To subscribe,  send email to 
rfc-request@nic.ddn.mil.

  cert@cert.org.  Security information and security advisories from the 
Internet CERT (formerly the Computer Emergency Response Team) are posted 
to this group.  To subscribe send email to cert@cert.org.

  net-happenings@is.internic.net.  This list announces various types of 
information pertaining to information services, for example tools, 
training, conferences, and newsletters.  This is a high-volume list, but 
very useful to NIC staff who need to keep up with network services.  To 
subscribe to net-happenings, send email to:

  listserv@is.internic.net 
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe net-happenings <your-full-name>

  NEWNIR-L.  This list was established as a centralized service to 
announce new network information retrieval tools and online public access 
catalogs (OPACS).  To subscribe to the list, send email to:

  listserv@itocsivm.csi.it 
  in the body of your message, type
  subscribe NEWNIR-L <your full name>

  NEW-LIST.  This mailing list announces new mailing lists and how to 
subscribe to them.  To subscribe to this list, send email to: 

  listserv@vm1.nodak.edu
  in the body of your message type
  sub new-list <your-full-name>

  hack-l@alive.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca  The Hack Report Mailing List is a 
monthly informational newsletter which warns of hacked, hoax, Trojan 
Horse, and pirated files that have been seen posted on BBS systems 
worldwide.  It is biased towards MS-DOS programs, but is a great aid to 
anyone who downloads MS-DOS files from a public access system or 
maintains a public access system with MS-DOS files available.  This 
mailing list has been created to allow fast efficient distribution of The 
Hack Report to people with an Internet email addresses who do not have 
easy access to it via other means, such as via anonymous FTP or through 
FidoNet.  This is  a one-directional list solely for the distribution of 
The Hack Report each month.  To subscribe to hack-l, send email to:

  majordomo@alive.ampr.ab.ca 
  in the body of your message type
  subscribe hack-l <your email address>

  www-announce@info.cern.ch.  An announcement list for developments 
regarding the World Wide Web.  See also the www-talk list described 
below.  To subscribe, send email to:

  listserv@info.cern.ch 
  in the body of the message type
  add www-announce

  gopher-announce@boombox.micro.umn.edu.  An announcement list for items 
of concern for gopher implementors.  To join, send a message to: 
gopher-announce-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu.  See also the gopher-news 
list described below. 


MODERATED DISCUSSION LISTS

  Help-Net%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@pucc.princeton.edu.  Users can send questions 
to this list regarding Internet and Bitnet.  The moderator asks that the 
user read the FAQ (frequently asked questions) before submitting a 
question.  The FAQ is available via FTP from host ftp.temple.edu, the 
Gopher site for Temple University, or by sending email to 
listserv@vm.temple.edu and typing SEND FAQ FILE HELP-NET in the body of 
the message.  Archives of the mailing list are kept there as well.  To 
subscribe to this list, send email to:

  listerv@vm.temple.edu
  in the body of your message type
  sub help-net <your-full-name>

  nics@is.internic.net.  This list is intended for staff at midlevel, 
campus, and discipline-specific NICs.  Content will include InterNIC 
services aimed specifically at NICs, and mail sent to this list will be 
oriented towards providing services to end users, including new training 
resources and documentation. All NIC staff are encouraged to subscribe.  
This is a moderated list, and volume is low.  To subscribe to this list, 
send email to:

  listserv@is.internic.net
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe nics <your name>

  nettrain@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu.  NETTRAIN is a moderated list. Its 
purpose is to discuss and exchange information, resources and advice for 
training others in the use of the Internet and BITNET.  To subscribe to 
this list, send email to

  listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe NETTRAIN <your full name>


NONMODERATED DISCUSSION LISTS

  IETF@cnri.reston.VA.US.  This is the general mailing list for the 
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).  Each working group of the task 
force also maintains its own list.  To subscribe to the IETF mailing list 
send email to ietf-request@cnri.reston.va.us.

  us-wg@nic.near.net.  The User Services Area of the IETF provides a 
forum through which Internet user service providers  can identify and 
discuss common concerns.  It comprises a number of working groups, 
several of which are of interest to NIC personnel.  Each of these working 
groups has its own discussion list, so that even if you cannot attend 
IETF meetings, you can participate in the work online.  To obtain the 
current list of User Services Area working groups and their mailing 
lists, retrieve the file 1user-services.txt from an IETF repository.  The 
working group from which others are spawned is the User Services Working 
Group.  To join this mailing list, send a message to 
us-wg-request@nic.near.net.

  namedroppers@nic.ddn.mil.  The concepts, principles, design and 
implementation of the domain naming system are discussed on this list.  
To subscribe, send email to namedroppers-request@nic.ddn.mil.

  bind@vangogh.cs.berkeley.edu.  This a list for the discussion of the 
BIND domain software.  To subscribe, send email to 
bind-request@vangogh.cs.berkeley.edu.

  tcp-ip@nic.ddn.mil.  This is an nonmoderated list established to 
discuss topics related to the TCP/IP suite of protocols.  It is intended 
to be a forum of discussion for developers and maintainers.  To 
subscribe, send email to tcp-ip-request@nic.ddn.mil.

  VIRUS-L.  For those interested in keeping up-to-date on such topics as 
computer viruses, protection software, and related topics.  To subscribe, 
send email to:

  listserv%llehiibm1.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu
  in the body of your message type
  sub VIRUS-L <your full name>

  www-talk@info.cern.ch.  A discussion list on the topic of implementing 
the World Wide Web.  To subscribe, send email to:

  listserv@info.cern.ch 
  in the body of the message type
  add www-talk

  gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu.  A discussion list regarding the 
Gopher protocol and server implementations. To subscribe send email to

  gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  gopher-jewels@tpis.cactus.org.  This is a list service for the sharing 
of interesting gopher finds.  This list expects subscribers are either 
gopher masters or users and requests that users refrain from technical 
Q&A posts.  To subscribe send email to:

  gopherjewelslist-request@tpis.cactus.org
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe


ORGANIZATIONS

These organizations are those a NIC will definitely hear about and of
which a NIC should be aware.  Brief descriptions are included here as
general introductions for those groups you may not yet have heard of.

  Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval 
(CNIDR).  The Clearing House for Networked Information Discovery and 
Retrieval is an organization that was established to track "user-friendly 
client-server software tools" that have been developed or are currently 
under development.  WAIS, archie, Gopher, and the World Wide Web are some 
examples.  CNIDR works closely with developers of the tools and is active 
in standards and policy groups such as  the Internet Engineering Task 
Force (IETF) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI).  CNIDR 
collects documentation, manuals, and source code for the various software 
tools it tracks. These are available via their Gopher server at 
jasmine.cnidr.org.

  Clearinghouse for Subject-oriented Resource Guides (University of 
Michigan Gopher ULibrary).  These guides  are produced by the Internet 
Resource Discovery Project at the University of Michigan as a joint 
effort between the University Library and the School of Information and 
Library Studies (SILS).  The guides that are produced as a result of this 
project will be available via Gopher and anonymous FTP. 

   To retrieve the guides via anonymous FTP, connect to host
   una.hh.lib.umich.edu.  The guide is located under pathname
   /inetdirs .

   To retrieve the guides via Gopher, connect to the University of
   Minnesota List of Gophers and select menu items North
   America/USA/Michigan/University of Michigan Libraries.  (This
   places you at the host gopher.lib.umich.edu.)  Then select menu
   items Social Sciences Resources/Information and Library Studies,
   and finally the menu item Clearinghouse for Subject-oriented
   Resource Guides.

  The Federation of American Research Networks (FARNET).  FARNET is  a 
non-profit corporation whose mission is to advance the use of computer 
networks to enhance research and education. FARNET is composed of network 
service providers, both national and international; for-profit and 
non-profit corporations; universities; supercomputer centers; and other 
organizations that support FARNET's mission.  For more information 
contact:

  Laura Breeden
  Executive Director
  FARNET
  100 Fifth Avenue
  Waltham, MA 02154
  Phone:  1-617 890-5120
  Email:  breeden@farnet.org

  The Commercial Internet Exchange Association, Inc. (CIX).  CIX links 
Public Data Internets (PDIs). The organization is open to all commercial 
Internet TCP/IP network providers and carriers who agree to exchange 
traffic at a fixed and equal cost set by the association.  The primary 
goal is to provide connectivity among each of the participating carriers, 
each of which has no restrictions on the type of traffic allowed.  It is 
because of this agreement that traffic is not limited to solely research 
or academic activities.  The CIX is not open to individuals; however, 
they are encouraged to contact service providers that are CIX members.  
For more information: info@cix.org.

  Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).   The IETF is the protocol 
engineering, development, and standardization arm of the Internet 
Architecture Board (IAB).  The IETF has grown into a large, open, 
international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and 
researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet protocol 
architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.

  Activity on any specific topic in the IETF is addressed within working 
groups.  All working groups are organized roughly by function into Areas.  
Much of the daily work of the IETF is conducted on electronic mailing 
lists.  There are mailing lists for each of the working groups, as well 
as an IETF general discussion list and an IETF announcement 
list.Information and logistics about upcoming meetings of the IETF are 
distributed on the IETF announcement mailing list.  For general inquiries 
about the IETF, requests should be sent to ietf-info@cnri.reston.va.us.  
An archive of mail sent to the IETF list is available for anonymous FTP 
from the directory /ietf-mail-archive/ietf on host cnri.reston.va.us.

  Especially of interest to NIC staffs is the activity in the User 
Services Area of the IETF.  Several working groups in this area address 
NIC, training, documentation, and outreach issues.  For more information 
about the User Services Area, obtain the file 1user-services.txt 
available from the IETF repositories (that is, those that house Internet 
Drafts, such as venera.isi.edu).

  The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI).  CNI was formed by the 
Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM.  CNI's goal is  "to 
make Internet resources more accessible, to increase knowledge about 
networked resources, and to enhance and increase these resources."  CNI 
works through various working groups composed of individuals who are 
active in numerous areas of networking.  More information about CNI is 
available via anonymous FTP from host ftp.cni.org or contact:

  Joan Lippincott
  Coalition for Networked Information
  1527 New Hampshire, NW
  Washington, DC 20036
  Phone:  1-202-232-2466 (FAX) 1-202-462-7849
  Email:  joan@cni.org

  The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).  CoSN advocates access to, 
and facilitates the development of, national and international electronic 
networks as resources to Kindergarten through grade 12  (K-12) educators 
and students.  CoSN advocates equitable, low-cost, user-friendly access 
to communication services and information resources, and encourages 
collaborations among K-12 educators and students, post-secondary 
researchers and scholars, along with other groups and individuals 
concerned with K-12 education.  For more information contact:

  John R.B. Clement
  1112 16th Street, NW
  Suite 600
  Washington, DC 20036
  Phone:  1-202-872-4200 (FAX) 1-202-872-4318
  Email:  clement@educom.edu

  Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).  The EFF was founded in July of 
1990 to ensure that the principles embodied in the Constitution and the 
Bill of Rights are protected as new communications technologies emerge.  
From the beginning, EFF has worked to shape the communication 
infrastructure of the United States, and the policies that govern it in 
order to maintain and  enhance First Amendment, privacy and other 
democratic values.  General information requests, including requests to 
be added to the EFFector Online mailing list, can be sent to eff@eff.org.  
More information about EFF is available from the is.internic.net gopher 
or contact:

  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  1001 G Street, NW, Suite 950 East
  Washington, DC 20001
  Email: eff@eff.org

  EDUCOM.  EDUCOM is a non-profit consortium of colleges, universities, 
and other institutions.  It was founded to facilitate the introduction, 
use, and management of information technology in higher education.  For 
more information contact:

  EDUCOM
  1112 16th Street, NW
  Suite 600
  Washington, DC 20036
  Phone:  1-202-872-4200
  Email:  info@bitnic.educom.edu

  The Internet Society (ISOC).  The Internet Society is a non-profit 
organization operated for academic, educational, charitable and 
scientific purposes .  The Society facilitates and supports the technical 
evolution of the Internet as a research and education infrastructure and 
stimulates involvement of the academic, scientific and engineering 
communities, among others, in the evolution of the Internet.  The Society 
also strives to educate the academic and scientific communities and the 
public concerning the technology, use and application of the Internet. 
More information can be found in the /isoc directory on host 
cnri.reston.va.us, and via the Gopher at host ietf.cnri.reston.va.us.  
For more information contact:

  The Internet Society
  1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
  Reston, VA 22091
  Phone:  1-703-620-8990
  Email:  isoc@cnri.reston.va.us

  The Reseaux Associe pour la Recherche Europenne (RARE).  RARE is the 
association of European research networks.  Its purpose is to promote 
network services for the European research community, and especially to 
promote international interconnections of such services. For more 
information contact:

  RARE Secretariat
  Singel 466-468
  NL-1017 AW
  Amsterdam
  Phone:  +31 20 639 1139
  FAX:  +31 20 639 3289
  Email:  raresec@rare.nl

  Reseaux IP Europenne (RIPE) .  RIPE is a RARE body that is responsible 
for European TCP/IP coordination activities.  RIPE's aim is to ensure the 
coordination necessary to allow the operation and expansion of a 
pan-European IP network.  As such, RIPE acts as a forum for the exchange 
of technical information as well as for the promotion and coordination of 
IP networks within Europe and to other continents.

  National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN).  NPTN is a not-for-profit 
organization whose goal is to establish and develop free computerized 
information and communications services for the general public and the 
K-12 community.  More information is available from:

  T. M. Grundner, Ed.D
  President, NPTN
  Box 1987
  Cleveland, OH 44106
  Phone:  1-216-368-2733
  Email:  aa001@cleveland.freenet.edu

  The Center for Civic Networking.  This is a non-profit organization 
whose goal is to use the Internet as a tool for supplying information to 
local governments, improving access to this information, and providing 
"electronic town halls" to encourage citizen participation in government.  
More information is available from:

  Center for Civic Networking
  Phone:  -1-617-241-9205
  Email:  ccn@civicnet.org


NETWORK INFORMATION CENTERS

There are hundreds of information centers around the Internet, many of 
which you will interact with, and most of which are not listed in this 
section.  This section lists only very high-level NICs, often those that 
perform registration services for a region.  The exclusion of a NIC from 
this list does not imply it is unimportant.

  NASA Network Applications & Information Center (NAIC)
  The NAIC is the NIC for the NASA Science Internet.
  Phone:  1-800-858-9947 or 1-415-604-0600
  FAX:  1-415-604-0978
  Email via Internet:  naic@nasa.gov
  Email via DECnet:  EAST::"naic@nasa.gov"

  InterNIC (General Atomics, AT&T, Net Solutions)

  The InterNIC is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and has 
three main tasks, divided among three contractors.  General Atomics 
provides information services, such as answers  to general questions 
about getting connected to the Internet and how to locate and access 
information for using the network more effectively.  Network Solutions, 
Inc., providers registration services to the Internet, coordinating the 
assignment of IP network numbers and domain names, among other things.  
AT&T provides directory and database services to the Internet.

  Phone:  1-800-444-4345 or 1-619-455-4600
  FAX:  1-619-455-4640
  Email:  info@internic.net

  DDN NIC

  The Defense Data Network (DDN)  NIC provides information and 
registration services for the DoD's Defense Data Network.

  Phone:  1-800-365-3642
  Email:  nic@nic.ddn.mil

  RIPE NCC

  The RIPE Network Control Center coordinates registration services in 
Europe and provides some general information services as well.  It 
primarily serves NICs from European countries.

  Phone:  +31 20 592 5065
  FAX:  +31 20 592 5155
  Email:  ncc@ripe.net

  APNIC

  The Asia Pacific NIC provides registration services for the Asia 
Pacific region.

  Phone:  +81-3-5684-7747
  FAX:  +81-3-3580-3782
  Email:  hostmaster@apnic.net

  


Section 9. Overview of Useful Resources

There are many resources available via the Internet with which a NIC 
should become acquainted.  These resource provide information about 
network services, technical information, and network developments.  They 
represent methods a NIC can use to keep abreast of the dynamic network 
information environment.  They may be grouped in the following general 
categories:

  -  RFCs, FYIs, STDs, and Internet Drafts
  -  Files and file collections
  -  Information Tools
  -  Directory Services
  -  Online services
  -  Online mailing lists
  -  Organizations
  -  Network Information Centers


RFCS, FYIS, STDS, AND INTERNET DRAFTS

The online documents in this section are basic Internet references.  
Every NIC should know about them, know how they are related, know the 
scope of the contents of each category of document, know where their 
primary repositories on the Internet are, and know how to retrieve them.  
A NIC will find several of them directly useful to their work and may 
even consider contributing to the body of documents.

Several NICs store these documents on the local network so that users 
can access them more directly.  This is a large commitment of online 
storage space, however.  It may make more sense to put pointers to these 
documents, or the subset of them you consider relevant for your 
constituency, on a Gopher server.

Request For Comments (RFC) documents are online working notes of the 
Internet research and development community.  A document in this series 
may be on essentially any topic related to computer communication, and 
may be anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard.  
Many RFCs are descriptions of network protocols or services, some report 
policy recommendations, and many are merely informational.  Almost 1700 
RFCs have been published since 1969.  Because of the great number of 
RFCs, two subseries and a draft series were created to make it easier for 
readers to identify the status and type of an RFC.  These other series, 
FYIs and STDs, are discussed  in the next several bullets.

For information on locating and retrieving RFCs, send a message to
rfc-info@isi.edu with help: ways_to_get_rfcs as the text of your
message.

For Your Information (FYI) documents are a subseries of the RFC series 
of online documents.  FYIs are designed to provide general and 
introductory information to users of the Internet, although they are not 
restricted to being either general or non-technical.  The FYI series was 
created to help readers identify those RFCs that were meant to be 
informational.  For more information about the FYI series, read RFC 
1150/FYI 1, F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.:  Introduction to the F.Y.I. Notes.  FYIs 
can be retrieved in the same manner as RFCs.

Internet Standard (STD) documents are a subseries of RFCs that contain 
only those RFCs that have been tested and declared Internet Standard 
protocols.  Unless an RFC also has an STD number, it is not a standard.  
For more information about the STD series, read RFC 1310, The Internet 
Standards Process, and RFC 1311, Introduction to the STD Notes.  STDs can 
be retrieved in the same manner as RFCs.

Internet Drafts (I-Ds) were created to provide an informal means for 
writers to receive comments on ideas for protocols or services while 
their documentation was still in draft form.  Most, but not all, Internet 
Drafts start out with the aim of becoming RFCs.  Most Internet Drafts are 
the result of work performed by a working group of the Internet 
Engineering Task Force (IETF).

As with RFCs, there are several repositories for Internet Drafts.  For 
information on how to locate and retrieve Internet Drafts, retrieve the 
file ietf/1directories.txt from the host venera.isi.edu.


FILES AND FILE COLLECTIONS

These files are compilations of material on different specific topics.
NICs can often consult these sources for pointers that will assist
users.  Some of these files are maintained on a volunteer basis.
Remember that all Internet information is volatile, so this list may
have changed slightly by the time you read this section.  Of course,
users themselves may be interested in these lists directly; many NIC
Gopher servers contain pointers to them.

  The Internet Services List (Compiled by Scott Yanoff, 
yanoff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu).  This  file is a comprehensive listing of 
special Internet connections categorized according to subject matter.  
Under each subject title is a list of Telnet, FTP, or Gopher sites with 
relevant information pertaining to that particular subject.  The file is  
maintained and updated on a regular monthly basis by Scott Yanoff.  The 
file is available on various Gopher servers, however to be certain that 
you have the most current information, it is suggested that you obtain 
the file from the host csd4.csd.uwm.edu, the pathname of the file is  
/pub/inet.services.txt.  Sites that do not have access to FTP or lack the 
ability to use either Telnet or Gopher can request the file via email 
from yanoff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu.

  The Inter-Network Mail Guide by John J. Chew with further
modifications by Scott Yanoff.  This is a "how-to" guide for
addressing and sending email to and from other networks.  It is
organized by network name.  Within the network name, addressing and
point of contact information is given.  The file is updated on a
regular basis.  It can be FTPed from the host csd4.csd.uwm.edu using
the pathname /pub/internetwork-mail.guide.  It is also available
through the Gopher servers at Internet sites naic.nasa.gov and
is.internic.net.

  Internet Accessible Library Catalogs & Databases, co-authored
by Art St. George and Ron Larsen.  A listing of over 100 online
library catalogs and databases both nationally and internationally,
the Internet Accessible Library Catalogs and Databases includes
pointers to library catalogs, databases, Campus-Wide Online
Information Systems (CWIS), and bulletin board services.  Each entry
contains a description of the service, instructions on its use and how
to access it, and contacts for further information.  Examples of some
the listings are Columbia University's online library catalog (CLIO),
Pennsylvania's State University online card catalog systems (PENpages)
and the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL).

  This file is available online on the Gopher server at Internet
site is.internic.net or via anonymous FTP from the host
is.internic.net as pathname
  /infosource/getting-started/things-to-do-internet/
    resource-lists/library-list
This catalog may be retrieved as a single large file or as
several smaller files containing individual chapters.

  Internet Monthly Report is a vehicle to report the
accomplishments, milestones, and problems discovered by organizations
participating in the Internet.  It is often a good source for finding
out what different groups are doing and the status of certain
projects.  A subscription to the Internet Monthly Report may be
obtained by sending electronic mail to the mailbox
imr-request@isi.edu.

  Internet Statistics.  This file contains an international
connectivity list, the Internet Domain survey, growth and size
information about various networks and services, and international
email connections.  The file may be obtained by connecting to the
Gopher server at the host is.internet.net and stepping through the
menu items to Internet Statistic, Size and Connectivity.

  The Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication (a.k.a.
"December's list"). Compiled/copyright John December (decemj@rpi.edu).
The purpose of this file is to list pointers to descriptive
information about the Internet, computer networks, and topics related
to computer-mediated communications (CMC).  It is geared towards an
audience that is just getting started on the Internet, as well those
that have some familiarity with the Internet, especially with how to
use FTP, email, and/or USENET news groups.  This is a "living
document" so the author welcomes updates and additions.  The file is
available on various Gopher servers, including naic.nasa.gov, and can
be anonymously FTPed from the host ftp.rpi.edu using pathname
pub/communications/internet-cmc.

  Guide to Network Resource Tools, EARN Association.  As the title 
states, this is a guide to the various network resource tools, such as 
Gopher, archie, and the World Wide Web, as well as many others.  The 
guide is divided into five sections, classified by their main purpose.  
Each section is then broken down into subsections of what is the tool, 
who can use the tool, how to get the tool, how to use it, and learning 
more about it.  The guide is available online in either ASCII or 
PostScript formats.  It is accessible via Gopher or FTP from host 
naic.nasa.gov.

  The Internet Companion: A Beginners Guide to Global Networking, by 
Tracy LaQuey.  This file is available online via FTP from Internet site 
world.std.com as pathname /OBS/Tracy.LaQuey.  It contains material from 
the book of the same name which introduces very basic Internet concepts 
to naive and potential users.

  Zen and the Art of the Internet. by Brendan Kehoe.  The first edition 
of the book is still available as an online file from host 
cs.widener.edu.  It is advisable to FTP the README file there first.  
Many gophers also provide access to the online version.  The file is an 
introduction for the novice user and discusses topics such as electronic 
mail, the domain naming system, and network information tools.

  The InterNIC InterActive.  InterNIC Information Services publishes a 
bi-monthly newsletter, the InterNIC InterActive, covering network 
information services issues of interest to the entire community, such as 
tools, resources, training opportunities, and networking organizations.  
InterNIC InterActive also details existing and new services provided by 
all three areas of the InterNIC: Information Services, Directory and 
Database Services, and Registration Services.  To subscribe to the 
InterNIC InterActive, send email to interactive-request@is.internic.net.  
Indicate in your message whether you would like to receive the newsletter 
in hardcopy format, electronic format, or both.


INFORMATION TOOLS

The resources in this section present Internet information via a 
hypertext or point-and-click format.

  NICLink (CD-ROM).  NICLink is a service offered by the InterNIC 
Information Center as part of InfoSource.  It is useful for those who 
currently do not have Internet access but plan to do so.  The CD is in 
hypertext format for easy access to a vast amount of Internet resources 
and tools.

  Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, Electronic Frontier Foundation.  
This guide was written for the novice user and assumes that the user has 
had little or no experience with the network communications.  It explains 
in very basic terms how to join and general networking terms (FTP, email, 
etc.).  It also has a fairly large resource and tool section. The guide 
is available online via anonymous FTP from host ftp.eff.org using 
pathname /pub/EFF/papers/big-dummys-guide.txt or via various Gopher 
servers on the net.

  Internet Cruise.  Merit's  Cruise of the Internet is a tutorial for new 
and experienced Internet users.  The Cruise tutorial is computer-based 
and runs on either Macintosh or DOS-compatible computers.  For more 
information send email to nis-info@nic.merit.edu and in the body of the 
message type either get merit.cruise2.mac.readme or get 
merit.cruise2.win.readme.  These files are also accessible via FTP from 
host nic.merit.edu as /internet/resources/cruise.mac and 
/internet/resources/cruise.dos. 


DIRECTORY SERVICES

The directory services listed in this section are white pages services, 
that is, they are tools used to find out information about people.  There 
is no central directory of Internet users that lists the contact 
information for everyone that uses the Internet.  There are databases 
that list subsets of users, and vasious tools that use different means of 
discovering information about users.  This section lists three common 
tools.

  Whois.  Whois is a white pages tool that is especially useful for 
locating contacts for registered Internet networks and domains, which are 
the types of people NICs often try to find.  Whois was developed as an 
access tool for the registration information now maintained by the 
InterNIC Registration Services contractor; however, the protocol has been 
used at other sites for access to other databases.  In addition, the 
registration services Whois data is accessible via other protocols such 
as WAIS and X.500 and can return more than traditional white pages 
information (for example, you can search on a network number or domain 
name).  For information about Whois, consult the EARN Association's  
Guide to Network Resource Tools available on the host naic.nasa.gov as  
files/general_info/earn-resource-tool-guide.txt or .ps.

  Netfind.  Netfind is a white pages tool for the Internet.  Given the 
name of a person on the Internet and the person's location, Netfind 
attempts to return the phone number and email address of that person.  
Netfind works by using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the 
finger protocol, so it cannot find email addresses for people who send 
mail through gateways.  Netfind only works under SunOS 4.0 or later.  For 
information on using Netfind, consult the EARN Association's  Guide to 
Network Resource Tools.

  X.500.  X.500 is a hierarchical, distributed directory service.  Unlike 
the current Whois protocol, X.500 has the capability of linking databases 
distributed throughout the Internet into a worldwide Directory.  It is 
mainly used today to store and access information about people and 
organizations.  NASA uses the X.500 protocol to link information about 
personnel at the different NASA Centers.  For more information about 
X.500 in general, consult the EARN Association's  Guide to Network 
Resource Tools.  For information about NASA's use of X.500, contact the 
NAIC.


ONLINE SERVICES

These particular online services are some the NAIC has found helpful 
and that we thought other NICs should know about.

  Campus Wide Information Systems (CWIS).  CWIS is an online service 
provided to a college, university, company or institution as a central 
source of information.  Each CWIS can offer many types of information, 
for example access to the campus directory, a calendar of events, or 
information about the surrounding community.  A CWIS is maintained on one 
or a few campus computers and then accessed via public terminals or 
remote sites.  CWIS can be accessed via Telnet or Gopher servers.  There 
are an increasing number of CWIS sites and as such are a becoming an 
important tool for distributing local information globally and 
vice-versa.

  A current CWIS list is available from the InfoSource at the InterNIC 
Information Center or via FTP from host sunsite.unc.edu using the 
pathname /pub/docs/about-the-net/cwis/cwis-l.  For questions regarding 
the CWIS-L listserver contact hallman@gibbs.oit.unc.edu

  InfoSource at the InterNIC.  InfoSource is an online repository of 
Internet reference data.  New user materials, references to network 
tools, and pointers to other Internet groups and service providers are 
just a small sampling of what is contained in this collection.  The 
InfoSource is accessible via Gopher, WAIS, FTP, archie, Telnet, and 
electronic mail.  To submit a document or resource for inclusion in 
InfoSource or distribution on the nis mailing list, send email to 
scout@internic.net.

  The Virtual Reference Desk.  This service is provided by the University 
of California, Irvine campus and is a compilation of "electronic 
bookmarks" of information and resources from computers that are 
geographically dispersed.  The Virtual Reference Desk is available via 
Gopher on the host peg.cwis.uci.edu.  The point of contact for this 
effort is cjboyer@uci.edu.


ONLINE MAILING LISTS

In this section we briefly summarize a number of useful Internet 
announcement lists, online discussion lists  and other sources that, in 
general, are informational rather than technical in nature.  Users who 
subscribe to announcement lists receive information in the form of 
announcements via email.  Users who subscribe to discussion lists 
actually participate in online discussions via email.  Discussion lists 
may or may not be moderated by a person who performs  the administrative 
function of screening mail that is sent to the list.  Other information 
sources include centrally located mailboxes that are administered by an 
information center or other entity responsible for information 
dissemination.  Typically, email sent to these mailboxes will be answered 
by reference desk staff members.  The lists  below are grouped according 
to category.

ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS

  nis@is.internic.net.  This list aims to serve network information 
service providers and end users. It is a group effort of people 
throughout the Internet to concentrate announcements of new resources 
onto one list. It is moderated, and contains only announcements of new 
tools and resources available over the Internet.  It is a goal of this 
list to maintain a low volume of traffic, therefore this is not a 
discussion list.

  If you would like to stay current on network services without having to 
read every mailing list, join the nis-list. If you would like more 
information about participating in the nis-list by becoming a monitor, 
send a note to scout@internic.net.  To subscribe to the list, send email 
to:

  listserv@is.internic.net
  in the body of the message type:
  subscribe nis <your name>

  rfc-announce@nic.ddn.mil.  Members of this list receive announcements 
of new Requests for Comments  (RFCs).  To subscribe,  send email to 
rfc-request@nic.ddn.mil.

  cert@cert.org.  Security information and security advisories from the 
Internet CERT (formerly the Computer Emergency Response Team) are posted 
to this group.  To subscribe send email to cert@cert.org.

  net-happenings@is.internic.net.  This list announces various types of 
information pertaining to information services, for example tools, 
training, conferences, and newsletters.  This is a high-volume list, but 
very useful to NIC staff who need to keep up with network services.  To 
subscribe to net-happenings, send email to:

  listserv@is.internic.net 
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe net-happenings <your-full-name>

  NEWNIR-L.  This list was established as a centralized service to 
announce new network information retrieval tools and online public access 
catalogs (OPACS).  To subscribe to the list, send email to:

  listserv@itocsivm.csi.it 
  in the body of your message, type
  subscribe NEWNIR-L <your full name>

  NEW-LIST.  This mailing list announces new mailing lists and how to 
subscribe to them.  To subscribe to this list, send email to: 

  listserv@vm1.nodak.edu
  in the body of your message type
  sub new-list <your-full-name>

  hack-l@alive.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca  The Hack Report Mailing List is a 
monthly informational newsletter which warns of hacked, hoax, Trojan 
Horse, and pirated files that have been seen posted on BBS systems 
worldwide.  It is biased towards MS-DOS programs, but is a great aid to 
anyone who downloads MS-DOS files from a public access system or 
maintains a public access system with MS-DOS files available.  This 
mailing list has been created to allow fast efficient distribution of The 
Hack Report to people with an Internet email addresses who do not have 
easy access to it via other means, such as via anonymous FTP or through 
FidoNet.  This is  a one-directional list solely for the distribution of 
The Hack Report each month.  To subscribe to hack-l, send email to:

  majordomo@alive.ampr.ab.ca 
  in the body of your message type
  subscribe hack-l <your email address>

  www-announce@info.cern.ch.  An announcement list for developments 
regarding the World Wide Web.  See also the www-talk list described 
below.  To subscribe, send email to:

  listserv@info.cern.ch 
  in the body of the message type
  add www-announce

  gopher-announce@boombox.micro.umn.edu.  An announcement list for items 
of concern for gopher implementors.  To join, send a message to: 
gopher-announce-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu.  See also the gopher-news 
list described below. 


MODERATED DISCUSSION LISTS

  Help-Net%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@pucc.princeton.edu.  Users can send questions 
to this list regarding Internet and Bitnet.  The moderator asks that the 
user read the FAQ (frequently asked questions) before submitting a 
question.  The FAQ is available via FTP from host ftp.temple.edu, the 
Gopher site for Temple University, or by sending email to 
listserv@vm.temple.edu and typing SEND FAQ FILE HELP-NET in the body of 
the message.  Archives of the mailing list are kept there as well.  To 
subscribe to this list, send email to:

  listerv@vm.temple.edu
  in the body of your message type
  sub help-net <your-full-name>

  nics@is.internic.net.  This list is intended for staff at midlevel, 
campus, and discipline-specific NICs.  Content will include InterNIC 
services aimed specifically at NICs, and mail sent to this list will be 
oriented towards providing services to end users, including new training 
resources and documentation. All NIC staff are encouraged to subscribe.  
This is a moderated list, and volume is low.  To subscribe to this list, 
send email to:

  listserv@is.internic.net
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe nics <your name>

  nettrain@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu.  NETTRAIN is a moderated list. Its 
purpose is to discuss and exchange information, resources and advice for 
training others in the use of the Internet and BITNET.  To subscribe to 
this list, send email to

  listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe NETTRAIN <your full name>


NONMODERATED DISCUSSION LISTS

  IETF@cnri.reston.VA.US.  This is the general mailing list for the 
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).  Each working group of the task 
force also maintains its own list.  To subscribe to the IETF mailing list 
send email to ietf-request@cnri.reston.va.us.

  us-wg@nic.near.net.  The User Services Area of the IETF provides a 
forum through which Internet user service providers  can identify and 
discuss common concerns.  It comprises a number of working groups, 
several of which are of interest to NIC personnel.  Each of these working 
groups has its own discussion list, so that even if you cannot attend 
IETF meetings, you can participate in the work online.  To obtain the 
current list of User Services Area working groups and their mailing 
lists, retrieve the file 1user-services.txt from an IETF repository.  The 
working group from which others are spawned is the User Services Working 
Group.  To join this mailing list, send a message to 
us-wg-request@nic.near.net.

  namedroppers@nic.ddn.mil.  The concepts, principles, design and 
implementation of the domain naming system are discussed on this list.  
To subscribe, send email to namedroppers-request@nic.ddn.mil.

  bind@vangogh.cs.berkeley.edu.  This a list for the discussion of the 
BIND domain software.  To subscribe, send email to 
bind-request@vangogh.cs.berkeley.edu.

  tcp-ip@nic.ddn.mil.  This is an nonmoderated list established to 
discuss topics related to the TCP/IP suite of protocols.  It is intended 
to be a forum of discussion for developers and maintainers.  To 
subscribe, send email to tcp-ip-request@nic.ddn.mil.

  VIRUS-L.  For those interested in keeping up-to-date on such topics as 
computer viruses, protection software, and related topics.  To subscribe, 
send email to:

  listserv%llehiibm1.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu
  in the body of your message type
  sub VIRUS-L <your full name>

  www-talk@info.cern.ch.  A discussion list on the topic of implementing 
the World Wide Web.  To subscribe, send email to:

  listserv@info.cern.ch 
  in the body of the message type
  add www-talk

  gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu.  A discussion list regarding the 
Gopher protocol and server implementations. To subscribe send email to

  gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  gopher-jewels@tpis.cactus.org.  This is a list service for the sharing 
of interesting gopher finds.  This list expects subscribers are either 
gopher masters or users and requests that users refrain from technical 
Q&A posts.  To subscribe send email to:

  gopherjewelslist-request@tpis.cactus.org
  in the body of the message type
  subscribe


ORGANIZATIONS

These organizations are those a NIC will definitely hear about and of
which a NIC should be aware.  Brief descriptions are included here as
general introductions for those groups you may not yet have heard of.

  Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval 
(CNIDR).  The Clearing House for Networked Information Discovery and 
Retrieval is an organization that was established to track "user-friendly 
client-server software tools" that have been developed or are currently 
under development.  WAIS, archie, Gopher, and the World Wide Web are some 
examples.  CNIDR works closely with developers of the tools and is active 
in standards and policy groups such as  the Internet Engineering Task 
Force (IETF) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI).  CNIDR 
collects documentation, manuals, and source code for the various software 
tools it tracks. These are available via their Gopher server at 
jasmine.cnidr.org.

  Clearinghouse for Subject-oriented Resource Guides (University of 
Michigan Gopher ULibrary).  These guides  are produced by the Internet 
Resource Discovery Project at the University of Michigan as a joint 
effort between the University Library and the School of Information and 
Library Studies (SILS).  The guides that are produced as a result of this 
project will be available via Gopher and anonymous FTP. 

   To retrieve the guides via anonymous FTP, connect to host
   una.hh.lib.umich.edu.  The guide is located under pathname
   /inetdirs .

   To retrieve the guides via Gopher, connect to the University of
   Minnesota List of Gophers and select menu items North
   America/USA/Michigan/University of Michigan Libraries.  (This
   places you at the host gopher.lib.umich.edu.)  Then select menu
   items Social Sciences Resources/Information and Library Studies,
   and finally the menu item Clearinghouse for Subject-oriented
   Resource Guides.

  The Federation of American Research Networks (FARNET).  FARNET is  a 
non-profit corporation whose mission is to advance the use of computer 
networks to enhance research and education. FARNET is composed of network 
service providers, both national and international; for-profit and 
non-profit corporations; universities; supercomputer centers; and other 
organizations that support FARNET's mission.  For more information 
contact:

  Laura Breeden
  Executive Director
  FARNET
  100 Fifth Avenue
  Waltham, MA 02154
  Phone:  1-617 890-5120
  Email:  breeden@farnet.org

  The Commercial Internet Exchange Association, Inc. (CIX).  CIX links 
Public Data Internets (PDIs). The organization is open to all commercial 
Internet TCP/IP network providers and carriers who agree to exchange 
traffic at a fixed and equal cost set by the association.  The primary 
goal is to provide connectivity among each of the participating carriers, 
each of which has no restrictions on the type of traffic allowed.  It is 
because of this agreement that traffic is not limited to solely research 
or academic activities.  The CIX is not open to individuals; however, 
they are encouraged to contact service providers that are CIX members.  
For more information: info@cix.org.

  Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).   The IETF is the protocol 
engineering, development, and standardization arm of the Internet 
Architecture Board (IAB).  The IETF has grown into a large, open, 
international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and 
researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet protocol 
architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.

  Activity on any specific topic in the IETF is addressed within working 
groups.  All working groups are organized roughly by function into Areas.  
Much of the daily work of the IETF is conducted on electronic mailing 
lists.  There are mailing lists for each of the working groups, as well 
as an IETF general discussion list and an IETF announcement 
list.Information and logistics about upcoming meetings of the IETF are 
distributed on the IETF announcement mailing list.  For general inquiries 
about the IETF, requests should be sent to ietf-info@cnri.reston.va.us.  
An archive of mail sent to the IETF list is available for anonymous FTP 
from the directory /ietf-mail-archive/ietf on host cnri.reston.va.us.

  Especially of interest to NIC staffs is the activity in the User 
Services Area of the IETF.  Several working groups in this area address 
NIC, training, documentation, and outreach issues.  For more information 
about the User Services Area, obtain the file 1user-services.txt 
available from the IETF repositories (that is, those that house Internet 
Drafts, such as venera.isi.edu).

  The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI).  CNI was formed by the 
Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM.  CNI's goal is  "to 
make Internet resources more accessible, to increase knowledge about 
networked resources, and to enhance and increase these resources."  CNI 
works through various working groups composed of individuals who are 
active in numerous areas of networking.  More information about CNI is 
available via anonymous FTP from host ftp.cni.org or contact:

  Joan Lippincott
  Coalition for Networked Information
  1527 New Hampshire, NW
  Washington, DC 20036
  Phone:  1-202-232-2466 (FAX) 1-202-462-7849
  Email:  joan@cni.org

  The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).  CoSN advocates access to, 
and facilitates the development of, national and international electronic 
networks as resources to Kindergarten through grade 12  (K-12) educators 
and students.  CoSN advocates equitable, low-cost, user-friendly access 
to communication services and information resources, and encourages 
collaborations among K-12 educators and students, post-secondary 
researchers and scholars, along with other groups and individuals 
concerned with K-12 education.  For more information contact:

  John R.B. Clement
  1112 16th Street, NW
  Suite 600
  Washington, DC 20036
  Phone:  1-202-872-4200 (FAX) 1-202-872-4318
  Email:  clement@educom.edu

  Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).  The EFF was founded in July of 
1990 to ensure that the principles embodied in the Constitution and the 
Bill of Rights are protected as new communications technologies emerge.  
From the beginning, EFF has worked to shape the communication 
infrastructure of the United States, and the policies that govern it in 
order to maintain and  enhance First Amendment, privacy and other 
democratic values.  General information requests, including requests to 
be added to the EFFector Online mailing list, can be sent to eff@eff.org.  
More information about EFF is available from the is.internic.net gopher 
or contact:

  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  1001 G Street, NW, Suite 950 East
  Washington, DC 20001
  Email: eff@eff.org

  EDUCOM.  EDUCOM is a non-profit consortium of colleges, universities, 
and other institutions.  It was founded to facilitate the introduction, 
use, and management of information technology in higher education.  For 
more information contact:

  EDUCOM
  1112 16th Street, NW
  Suite 600
  Washington, DC 20036
  Phone:  1-202-872-4200
  Email:  info@bitnic.educom.edu

  The Internet Society (ISOC).  The Internet Society is a non-profit 
organization operated for academic, educational, charitable and 
scientific purposes .  The Society facilitates and supports the technical 
evolution of the Internet as a research and education infrastructure and 
stimulates involvement of the academic, scientific and engineering 
communities, among others, in the evolution of the Internet.  The Society 
also strives to educate the academic and scientific communities and the 
public concerning the technology, use and application of the Internet. 
More information can be found in the /isoc directory on host 
cnri.reston.va.us, and via the Gopher at host ietf.cnri.reston.va.us.  
For more information contact:

  The Internet Society
  1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
  Reston, VA 22091
  Phone:  1-703-620-8990
  Email:  isoc@cnri.reston.va.us

  The Reseaux Associe pour la Recherche Europenne (RARE).  RARE is the 
association of European research networks.  Its purpose is to promote 
network services for the European research community, and especially to 
promote international interconnections of such services. For more 
information contact:

  RARE Secretariat
  Singel 466-468
  NL-1017 AW
  Amsterdam
  Phone:  +31 20 639 1139
  FAX:  +31 20 639 3289
  Email:  raresec@rare.nl

  Reseaux IP Europenne (RIPE) .  RIPE is a RARE body that is responsible 
for European TCP/IP coordination activities.  RIPE's aim is to ensure the 
coordination necessary to allow the operation and expansion of a 
pan-European IP network.  As such, RIPE acts as a forum for the exchange 
of technical information as well as for the promotion and coordination of 
IP networks within Europe and to other continents.

  National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN).  NPTN is a not-for-profit 
organization whose goal is to establish and develop free computerized 
information and communications services for the general public and the 
K-12 community.  More information is available from:

  T. M. Grundner, Ed.D
  President, NPTN
  Box 1987
  Cleveland, OH 44106
  Phone:  1-216-368-2733
  Email:  aa001@cleveland.freenet.edu

  The Center for Civic Networking.  This is a non-profit organization 
whose goal is to use the Internet as a tool for supplying information to 
local governments, improving access to this information, and providing 
"electronic town halls" to encourage citizen participation in government.  
More information is available from:

  Center for Civic Networking
  Phone:  -1-617-241-9205
  Email:  ccn@civicnet.org


NETWORK INFORMATION CENTERS

There are hundreds of information centers around the Internet, many of 
which you will interact with, and most of which are not listed in this 
section.  This section lists only very high-level NICs, often those that 
perform registration services for a region.  The exclusion of a NIC from 
this list does not imply it is unimportant.

  NASA Network Applications & Information Center (NAIC)
  The NAIC is the NIC for the NASA Science Internet.
  Phone:  1-800-858-9947 or 1-415-604-0600
  FAX:  1-415-604-0978
  Email via Internet:  naic@nasa.gov
  Email via DECnet:  EAST::"naic@nasa.gov"

  InterNIC (General Atomics, AT&T, Net Solutions)

  The InterNIC is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and has 
three main tasks, divided among three contractors.  General Atomics 
provides information services, such as answers  to general questions 
about getting connected to the Internet and how to locate and access 
information for using the network more effectively.  Network Solutions, 
Inc., providers registration services to the Internet, coordinating the 
assignment of IP network numbers and domain names, among other things.  
AT&T provides directory and database services to the Internet.

  Phone:  1-800-444-4345 or 1-619-455-4600
  FAX:  1-619-455-4640
  Email:  info@internic.net

  DDN NIC

  The Defense Data Network (DDN)  NIC provides information and 
registration services for the DoD's Defense Data Network.

  Phone:  1-800-365-3642
  Email:  nic@nic.ddn.mil

  RIPE NCC

  The RIPE Network Control Center coordinates registration services in 
Europe and provides some general information services as well.  It 
primarily serves NICs from European countries.

  Phone:  +31 20 592 5065
  FAX:  +31 20 592 5155
  Email:  ncc@ripe.net

  APNIC

  The Asia Pacific NIC provides registration services for the Asia 
Pacific region.

  Phone:  +81-3-5684-7747
  FAX:  +81-3-3580-3782
  Email:  hostmaster@apnic.net

  

ection 10. NIC Services Quick Checklist

As you go about establishing your NIC, this checklist can help you keep 
track of the many tasks and services you will be considering.  The 
checklist covers only tasks involved in establishing a NIC, not the 
ongoing tasks a NIC does in the course of daily operations.  The points 
listed here follow the order of the Sections of this document.

DEFINE SCOPE AND AUDIENCE

_ Write a statement that describes your audience.

_ Write a statement of your audience's requirements.

_ Write a statement that describes the scope of your NIC.  (What tasks will 
  you undertake now?)

_ Write a description of the future of your NIC.  (What tasks  will you 
  undertake in the future?)

HIRE STAFF

_ Level 1 user assistance specialists  (2).

_ Level 2 user assistance specialists.

_ Documentation specialist.

_ Information specialist

_ Training specialist.

_ Administrative specialist.

_ Technical staff.

_ Manager.

ACQUIRE AND INSTALL EQUIPMENT

_ Computers for staff.

_ Laser printer.

_ Server computer (with adequate capacity and memory).

_ Fax machine.

_ Copier.

_ Telephones for staff.

_ Storage space (shelves or file cabinets or storage room).

_ General office equipment and supplies.

PREPARE FOR DAILY OPERATION

_ Install and test the routing of your central phone number.

_ Set up a voicemail system (if any).

_ Establish a NIC role mailbox.

_ Establish an email archive file/directory.

_ Create, copy, and distribute a call tracking form; or install and 
  configure call tracking software.

_ Determine your reporting requirements.

_ Create a central staff information repository (directory).

_ Establish a mailing list for announcements or discussions of NIC 
  services.

INSTALL ONLINE INFORMATION SERVERS

_ FTP Server

_ Obtain software.

_ Install and configure a server.

_ Populate an FTP archive.

_ Gopher Server

_ Obtain software.

_ Install and configure a server.

_ Populate a Gopher server.

_ Create .link files as needed.

_ Choose Other Online Services and Implement as Necessary

_ Email server.

_ Mailing list (listserv) server.

_ World Wide Web server.

_ WAIS server.

_ archie client (or server).

_ White pages directory client(s) (or servers), e.g. X.500.

CREATE INITIAL DOCUMENTATION

_ Write a NIC services flyer.

_ Create a logo and/or a standard document format.

_ Decide on other possible documentation goals and projects and prioritize 
  their schedules:

_ Newsletter.

_ Tutorial handouts.
 
_ Resource list.

_ In-house procedures.

_ Newsletter subscriptions.

_ Reference library acquisitions.

_ Other documentation.

INITIATE LIAISON ACTIVITIES

_ Join appropriate informational and/or working group mailing lists.

_ Set up a conference attendance or exhibition schedule.

_ Identify the appropriate online resources  in which to advertise NIC 
  services  (e.g. Resource Guides, server mailing lists, etc.)

_ Identify the appropriate other groups with which you should establish 
  liaison relationships.





Appendix A

REFERENCES


Appendix B. Acronyms

This appendix contains a list of acronyms  that were used in the Network 
Information Center Guidelines.

ARC             Ames Reaearch Center, located at Moffett Field, 
                California.
ARPANET         Advance Research Projects Agency NETwork.
ASCII           American Standard Code for Information 
                Interchange.
AUP             Acceptable Use Policy.
BIND            Berkeley Internet Name Domain.
BITNET          Because It's Time NETwork.
CARL            Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries.
CD-ROM          Compact Disc- Read Only Memory.
CERT            The Internet CERT (formerly the Computer 
                Emergency Response Team).
CIX             Commercial Internet eXchange.
CLIO            Columbia Libraries Information Online.
CMC             Computer Mediated Communications.
CNI             Coalition for Networked Information.
CNIC            Center Network Information Center.  Located at 
                NASA centers.
CNIDR           Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and 
                Retrieval.
COSINE          Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking 
                in Europe.
CoSN            Consortium for School Networking.
CWIS            Campus Wide Information Systems.
DARPA           Defense Advance Research Projects Agency.
DDN             Defense Data Network.
EARN            European Academic Research Network.
EDUCOM          A consortium of US higher education institutions.
EFF             Electronic Frontier Foundation.
FAQ             Frequently Asked Questions.
FARNET          Federation of American Research NETworks.
FTP             File Transfer Protocol.
FYI             For Your Information.
GISS            Goddard Institute for Space Studies, located in 
                New York, New York.
GSFC            Goddard Space Flight Center, located in 
                Greenbelt, Maryland.
HQ              NASA Headquarters, located in Washington, DC.
IAB             Internet Architecture Board.
IAFA            Internet Anonymous FTP Archives (a subgroup of 
                the IETF USWG).
IDS             Integrated Directory Services (a subgroup of the 
                IETF USWG).
IESG            Internet Engineering Steering Group.
IETF            Internet Engineering Task Force.
IIIR            Integration of Internet Information Resources (a 
                subgroup of the IETF USWG).
IRTF            Internet Research Task Force.
ISN             Internet School Networking (a subgroup of the IETF 
                USWG).
ISOC            Internet SOCiety.
JPL             Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located at the 
                California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.
JSC             Johnson Space Center, located in Houston, Texas.
KSC             Kennedy Space Center, located in Florida.
LaRC            Langley Research Center, located in Hampton, 
                Virginia.
LeRC            Lewis Research Center, located in Cleveland, 
                Ohio.
MSFC            Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Alabama.

NAIC            NASA's Network Applications and Information 
                Center, located at the NASA Ames Research Center
                in Moffett Field, California.
NIC             Network Information Center.
NOC             Network Operations Center.
NIR             Network Information Retrieval.
NIR             Networked Information Retrieval (a subgroup of the 
                IETF USWG).
NISI            Network Information Services Infrastructure (a 
                subgroup of the IETF USWG).
NPTN            National Public Telecomputing Network.
NSI             NASA Science Internet.
OPAC            Online Public Access Catalog.
OSI             Open Systems Interconnection.
PDI             Public Data Internet.
PENpages        Pennsylvania's State University online card catalog 
                systems.
POC             Point Of Contact
RARE            Reseaux Associe pour la Recherche Europenne.
RFC             Request for Comments.
RIPE            Reseaux IP Europenne.
SILS            School of Information and Library Studies (at the 
                University of Michigan).
SMTP            Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
SSC             Stennis Space Center, located in Mississippi.
STD             Standard RFC.
TCP/IP          Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol.
URI             Uniform Resource Identifiers (a subgroup of the 
                IETF USWG).
USENET          An informal network of newsgroups.
USWG            User Services Working Group (a working group in the IETF).
WAIS            Wide Area Information Server.
WFF             Wallops Flight Facility, located in Wallops 
                Island, Virginia.
WNILS           Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (a subgroup 
                of the IETF USWG).
WWW             World Wide Web.



Appendix C: Configuration Examples


WU FTPD CONFIGURATION FILE

ftpusers

root
bin
boot
daemon
digital
field
gateway
guest
nobody
operator
ris
sccs
sys
uucp


WU FTPD CONFIGURATION FILE

ftpaccess

loginfails 2

class   local   real,anonymous *.arc.nasa.gov 0.0.0.0
class   remote  real,anonymous *

limit   local   20  Any                 /usr/extras/etc/msgs/msg.toomany
limit   remote  100 SaSu|Any1800-0600   /usr/extras/etc/msgs/msg.toomany
limit   remote  60  Any                 /usr/extras/etc/msgs/msg.toomany

readme  README*    login
readme  README*    cwd=*

message /welcome.msg	login
message .message	cwd=*

compress        yes             local remote
tar             yes             local remote

# allow use of private file for SITE GROUP and SITE GPASS?
private         yes

# passwd-check  <none|trivial|rfc822>  [<enforce|warn>]
passwd-check    rfc822  warn

log commands anonymous,real
log transfers anonymous,real inbound,outbound
shutdown /etc/shutmsg

# all the following default to "yes" for everybody
delete          no      guest,anonymous         # delete permission?
overwrite       no      guest,anonymous         # overwrite permission?
rename		no	guest,anonymous		# rename permission?
chmod           no      anonymous               # chmod permission?
umask           no      anonymous               # umask permission?

# specify the upload directory information

# directory aliases...  [note, the ":" is not required]
alias   inc:    /incoming

# cdpath
cdpath  /pub
cdpath  /

# path-filter...
path-filter  anonymous  /etc/pathmsg  ^[-A-Za-z0-9_\.]*$  ^\.  ^-
path-filter  guest      /etc/pathmsg  ^[-A-Za-z0-9_\.]*$  ^\.  ^-

# specify which group of users will be treated as "guests".
#guestgroup ftponly

email naic@nasa.gov


WU FTPD CONFIGURATION FILE

ftpconversions

#strip prefix:strip postfix:addon prefix:addon postfix:external command:
#types:options:description
 :.Z:  :  :/bin/compress -d -c %s:T_REG|T_ASCII:O_UNCOMPRESS:UNCOMPRESS
 :-z:  :  :/bin/compress -d -c %s:T_REG|T_ASCII:O_UNCOMPRESS:UNCOMPRESS
 :  :  :.Z:/bin/compress -c %s:T_REG:O_COMPRESS:COMPRESS
 :  :  :.tar:/bin/tar -c -f - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_TAR:TAR
 :  :  :.tar.Z:/bin/tar -c -Z -f - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_COMPRESS|O_TAR:TAR+COMPRESS



HTTPD CONFIGURATION FILE

access.conf

# access.conf: Global access configuration
# Online docs at http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
# I suggest you consult them; this is important and confusing stuff.

# This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.

<Directory /home/www>

# This may also be "None", or any combination of "Indexes",
# "Includes", or "FollowSymLinks"

Options All

# This controls which options the .htaccess files in directories can
# override. Can also be "None", or any combination of "Options", "FileInfo", 
# "AuthConfig", and "Limit"

AllowOverride All

# Controls who can get stuff from this server.

<Limit GET>
order allow,deny
allow from all
</Limit>

</Directory>

# You may place any other directories you wish to have access
# information for after this one.



HTTPD CONFIGURATION FILE

httpd.conf

# This is the main server configuration file. It is best to 
# leave the directives in this file in the order they are in, or
# things may not go the way you'd like. See URL http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
# for instructions.

# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do, if you are unsure consult the online docs. You have been
# warned.  

# Rob McCool (comments, questions to httpd@ncsa.uiuc.edu)

# ServerType is either inetd, or standalone.

ServerType standalone

# If you are running from inetd, go to "ServerAdmin".

# Port: The port the standalone listens to. For ports < 1023, you will
# need httpd to be run as root initially.

Port 80

# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.  

# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.

User nobody
Group nogroup

# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be
# e-mailed.

ServerAdmin awdeacon@atlas.arc.nasa.gov

# ServerRoot: The directory the server's config, error, and log files
# are kept in

ServerRoot /home/arc/awdeacon/src/httpd

# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file. If this does not start
# with /, ServerRoot is prepended to it.

ErrorLog logs/error_log

# TransferLog: The location of the transfer log file. If this does not
# start with /, ServerRoot is prepended to it.

TransferLog logs/access_log

# PidFile: The file the server should log its pid to
PidFile logs/httpd.pid

# ServerName allows you to set a host name which is sent back to clients for
#your server if it's different than the one the program would get (i.e. use
#"www" instead of the host's real name).

#ServerName new.host.name



HTTPD CONFIGURATION FILE

srm.conf

# With this document, you define the name space that users see of your http
# server.

# Rob (robm@ncsa.uiuc.edu)


# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.

DocumentRoot /home/www

# UserDir: The name of the directory which is appended onto a user's home
# directory if a ~user request is recieved.

UserDir public_html

# DirectoryIndex: Name of the file to use as a pre-written HTML
# directory index

DirectoryIndex index.html

# AccessFileName: The name of the file to look for in each directory
# for access control information.

AccessFileName .htaccess

# AddType allows you to tweak mime.types without actually editing it, or to
# make certain files to be certain types.
# Format: AddType type/subtype ext1 ext2 ...

# Redirect allows you to tell clients about documents which used to exist in
# your server's namespace, but do not anymore. This allows you to tell the
# clients where to look for the relocated document.
# Format: Redirect fakename url

# Aliases: Add here as many aliases as you need, up to 20. The format is 
# Alias fakename realname

# ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts.
# Format: ScriptAlias fakename realname

ScriptAlias /htbin /home/arc/awdeacon/src/httpd/htbin
ScriptAlias /htbin-post /home/arc/awdeacon/src/httpd/htbin-post

