Return-Path: Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1993 15:38:17 -0400 (EDT) From: jayne levin Subject: The Internet Letter--Premiere Issue To: com-priv Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII THE INTERNET LETTER On Corporate Users, Internetworking & Information Services Vol.1, No.1 A Net Week Inc. Publication October 1993 ============================================================================= This is the premiere issue of The Internet Letter. The Internet Letter -- the first commercial newsletter on the Internet -- will premiere at INET 93 and INTEROP(r)93, and a hard copy version will be available at Booth #1334 (InterCon Systems Corp.) in the South Hall of the Moscone Center. Permission granted to freely distribute this newsletter. The editor is Jayne Levin (netweek@access.digex.net). Levin was former deputy bureau chief of Institutional Investor in Washington, D.C., and has written on the Internet for The Washington Post and Infoworld. Tony Rutkowski (amr@CNRI.Reston.VA.US) is special adviser. Rutkowski is founder and vice president of the Internet Society and director of technology assessment at Sprint Corp. He was former editor-in-chief and publisher of Telecommunications magazine. Levin will be availble for interviews at INTEROP. Contact INTEROP press relations. =============================== IN THIS ISSUE =============================== 001) INTERNET EXPERIENCING AN INFORMATION EXPLOSION 002) COMPANIES TAP INTERNET'S POWER 003) THE TOP 150 COMMERCIAL USERS ON INTERNET -- CHART 004) CIA, US GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES DEVELOP INTERNET LINK 005) REALTY FIRM IMPROVES PRODUCTIVITY, INTERNET SPEEDS REALTY TRANSACTIONS 006) MULTIMEDIA MAGAZINE TO DEBUT ON INTERNET 007) TASK FORCE PROPOSES STANDARD TO SECURE CONTENTS OF E-MAIL 008) INTERNET MERCANTILE STANDARDS EXPLORED 009) GOPHER LICENSING FEE SPARKS DISPUTE 010) FINDING GOPHER & GN 011) FROM SOFTWARE TO MAGAZINES, BUYING ELECTRONICALLY 012) CIX LAUNCHES COMMERCIAL "INFORMATION" EXCHANGE 013) SOME COMPANIES PREFER WAIS FOR BUILDING IN-HOUSE DATABASES 014) MORE ON WAIS 015) INTERNET TO ASSIST BETHANY IN ADOPTION SERVICES 016) FAQ 017) PROVIDERS' CIRCUIT 018) CIX CONTACTS -- CHART 019) TIPS & TECHNIQUES 020) POINTERS 021) TALK OF THE NET 022) WASHINGTON 023) READ ALL ABOUT IT 024) DATEBOOK ***************************************************************************** 001) INTERNET EXPERIENCING AN INFORMATION EXPLOSION There is an information revolution going on, and the Internet is leading the way. As the variety of business needs increases each year, more networks are springing up to meet those demands. The number of networks that passed traffic through the NSFNet (National Science Foundation network), the largest of the Internet's backbones, has more than doubled in the last two years -- 9,240 networks in June 1993, compared with 3,971 networks two years ago. Twenty-nine percent of the networks identified by type -- commercial, research, educational, military or government -- are classified as commercial. This designation is made when the network is registered with the Internet central registration authority to obtain a globally unique IP (Internet Protocol) network number. Many of the networks classified as "research" also are owned by commercial companies. However, these research internets are not included here. Commercial networks are the fastest-growing segment of the Internet networks. From March to June of this year, NSFNet figures showed that the number of commercially connected networks jumped to 1,590 from 485. Reasons for this growth include: *The use of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/IP) as the internal internetworking platform for computers and networks. *The need to communicate and share information with staff members, companies and federal and regulatory agencies. *The rapid expansion and broad range of services on the Internet. With so many corporations having internal TCP/IP "internets," their connection to the Internet is simply "plug and play" with a favorite Internet backbone service provider. Thus, thousands of companies use the Internet in innovative ways. Under the NSF's existing Acceptable Use Policy, the NSF encourages this wide range of activity. Next year, a new national Internet architecture will be put into place after the NSF phases out its NSFNet backbone. The new architecture will rely primarily on commercial national backbone providers for long-haul Internet transport. Some major carriers, such as Sprint Corp., already have entered the marketplace. -------------------- 002) COMPANIES TAP INTERNET'S POWER Among the thousands of companies on the Internet, one group stands out in terms of the tremendous amount of information sent and received -- the power users. These companies have significant connectivity and, in some cases, own major Internet backbones. The Internet has attracted a broad range of corporate power users, including computer manufacturers, information services firms and telecommunications companies. Other power users depend heavily on scientific information and collaboration, such as genetic research, and include high-technology manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and oil producers. Even investment banking firms have found a need for the Internet. Each Internet power user transmitted from 1.5 gigabytes to 75 gigabytes of traffic on the NSFNet backbone in June 1993. The traffic of the top 150 companies totaled a whopping 912 gigabytes in June, up 11% >from March to June. The traffic of some companies, including Motorola Manufacturing Center, AT&T Data Communications Services, Molecular Simulations Inc., Siemens Corporate Research Inc. and General Dynamics Corp., exceeded 100% during the same time period. Companies, in many cases, provide Internet connectivity to the backbone or offer regional, gateway and local dial-up access. This Internet characteristic, where providers and users are one and the same, makes the Internet world unique and enhances the level of cooperation to keep performance high and costs low. -------------------- 003) THE TOP 150 COMMERCIAL USERS ON INTERNET Here are the top 150 companies sending the most traffic through the NSFNet backbone in June 1993. These companies have significant connections on the Internet. Company Hosts Reachable ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A.C. Nielsen Co. 748 a2i communications 7 Advanced Visual Systems Inc. 65 Advantis 3 American Cybercasting Corp. 2 Amgen Inc. 2476 Anasazi Inc. 3 Andersen Consulting 125 Apple Computer Inc. 830 ARCO Oil and Gas Co. 16 ASK Computer Systems, Ingres Division 6 AT&T Bell Laboratories 3 AT&T Data Communications Services 4 Bell Communications Research 6158 BiiN Corp. Biosym Technologies Inc. 221 Biotechnet 15 Borland International 582 BP Research 2 Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Inst. 1988 Cadence Design Systems 3573 CERFnet 25 Cisco Systems Inc. 2832 Community News Service 4 Compaq Computer Corp. 10 CompuServe Inc. 571 Computer Services Centre 3063 COMSAT Laboratories 456 Connected Inc. 29 Contel Wohlstetter Technology Park 714 Cray Research Inc. 2321 CTS Network Services 183 Data Research Associates Inc. 216 Datacomp Systems Inc. 11 Dell Computer Corp. 3530 Demon Systems Limited 1666 Dialog Information Services 3 Digital Equipment Computer Users Society 3 Digital Equipment Corp. 11 Digital Express Group Inc. 66 Dow Jones 5 DuPont 3 Eastman Kodak Co. 28 Eli Lilly and Co 2 Emulex Corp. 510 Ericsson Telecom 2 Evans & Sutherland Computer Division 15 F.Hoffmann-La Roche Farallon Computing Inc. 40 FTP Software Inc. 1389 FXD/Telerate USA Mountain View 4 General Dynamics 1188 General Electric Co. 5 General Motors Research Laboratories 1090 Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. 3 Hal Computer Systems Inc. 3 Halliburton Co. 2 Harris Semiconductor 1552 Honeywell Inc. 2603 Horizon Research Inc. 109 IBM Corp. 76 IBM Information Network 3 Information Access Technologies Inc. 15 Integrated Systems Inc. 220 INTEL/Components Research 2 Intergraph Corp. 132 International Lisp Associates Inc. 493 JP Morgan 5 Lehman Brothers LSI Logic Corp. 4 McDonnell Douglas Corp. 6652 MCI Communications 368 MDCME Unigraphics 1418 Mead Data Central 6 Mentat Inc. 1 Mentor Graphics Corp. 3 Metaphor Computer Systems 544 Microsoft Corp. 11 Mobil Exploration and Producing Services Inc. 18 Molecular Simulations Inc. 59 Monsanto 1204 Morning Star Technologies Inc. 160 Motorola Manufacturing Center 2227 Motorola Network Computing Services 1 MSEN Inc. 75 MV Communications 41 NationalInstruments Corp. 614 National Semiconductor 11 NCR Corp. 3 Netcom - Online Communication Services 81 Network Solutions Inc. 14 Network Systems Corp. 1035 NeXT Inc. 7 Northern Telecom/Bell Northern Research 2 Northrop Research and Technology Center 324 NSTN Inc. 91 NYNEX Science and Technology 286 OpenConnect Systems 8 Oracle Corp. 1 Pacific Bell 81 Pacific Power 597 Performance Systems International 2933 Philips Laboratories 1 Pixar 350 Portal Communications Co. 46 Prime Computer Inc. 2946 PSI 21 Public Access Networks Corp. 5 Pyramid Technology Corp. 3148 Qualcomm Inc. 1638 Red Electrica De Espana S.A. Spain Sevilla Research Systems Inc. 1 Rockwell International Corp. 2201 SAS Institute 3 Schlumberger-Doll Research 1728 Science Applications International Corp. 2350 Sequent Computer Systems 24 Siemens Corporate Research Inc. 351 Silicon Graphics Inc. 10 Software Tool & Die 33 Software Transformation Inc. 56 Solbourne Computer Inc. 6 Sprint SPSS Inc. 5 ST System Corp. 44 Sterling Software FSG/IMD 3 Stratus Computer Inc. 3554 Sun Microsystems Inc. 6 Sunquest Information Systems 198 SURFnet at KU Nijmegen 5 Swanson Analysis Systems Inc. 1 Systems Center Inc. 2 Teacher's Insurance and Annuities Association 451 Technische Universitaet Chemnitz 948 Texas Instruments Computer Science Center 4 Texas Metronet Inc. 7 TGV Inc. 101 The Santa Cruz Operation Inc. 1307 Transarc Corp. 251 US West 475 Usenix 52 Walnut Creek CDROM 24 Walt Disney Imagineering 34 Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis 135 West Services Inc. 2 Wicat Systems 41 Widener University 98 Wolfram Research Inc. 431 Xerox Corp. 4765 Source: National Science Foundation/The Internet Letter -------------------- 004) CIA, U.S. GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES DEVELOP INTERNET LINK Fourteen U.S. government intelligence agencies, led by the Central Intelligence Agency, are developing plans that would allow them to share unclassified information via the Internet. "Everyone is using it [the Internet]," said Paul Wallner, CIA Intelligence Community Open Source coordinator, in an exclusive interview with The Internet Letter. "Why not take advantage of it ourselves and use it. "We're not looking at the Internet as a way to gather intelligence," Wallner said. "The Internet is not viewed as a source of information for us." The agencies that would use Internet to exchange "public" information are part of the National Foreign Intelligence program. They include the National Security Agency, CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. The intelligence community will use the Internet to share information and ideas among themselves and the academic community, Wallner said. For example, if the CIA were asked about the nuclear waste problem in Russia, "a good way" to find out would be to talk to the scientific community on the Internet, he said. The system in place now is inadequate. While each agency has its own internal electronic communications network, two intelligence analysts working at different agencies but on the same project cannot send E-mail to one another. There also are no electronic links between the intelligence and academic communities. Communication is carried out mostly by telephone. Because of security concerns, the internal community network will not be connected directly to the Internet, Wallner said. The CIA plans to address the issue of security by creating "air gaps" between classified and unclassified information. An air gap would create a physical space between an agency's internal network and an Internet link. "That allows us to have another check on hackers and potential viruses," Wallner said. He characterized the tone of the discussion over security as "technical." There are three phases to the project, and the first phase is expected to start next spring. It involves establishing nine prototype Internet "nodes" that will connect to an Internet backbone. The CIA plans to seek engineering support from private industry to help design the network's overall architecture. Unclassified materials produced by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) may be available for anonymous FTP (file transfer protocol). No decision has been made on whether a Gopher or WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) server will be used, Wallner said. The government is grappling with whether public distribution of FBIS publications via the Internet would violate copyright law. Selected FBIS publications now are available in print and microfiche to government agencies and universities. FBIS publishes eight daily reports, one for each geographic region of the world. The information is gleaned from news accounts, commentaries and government statements from foreign broadcasts, and it is translated into English from more than 80 languages. --------------------- 005) REALTY FIRM IMPROVES PRODUCTIVITY, INTERNET SPEEDS REALTY TRANSACTIONS Tucked away in a corner of Silicon Valley, Alain Pinel Realtors' co-owner Mark Richards is trying to persuade nearly every segment of the real estate industry to establish a link to the Internet. Richards already has lined up several title companies to use the Internet in business transactions, including the Santa Clara and Title Co. and Fidelity National Title Co. "We said, `If you want to do business with us, this is how we do business.'" Richards' push to put the industry on the Internet stems from a desire to position Alain Pinel Realtors as a technical leader in real estate. Alain, which established a link to the Internet three years ago, has dial-up access to the Internet through Netcom - Online Communications Inc., a service provider in San Jose. The firm plans to obtain soon a direct connection to the Internet. Using the Internet in real estate transactions canreduce the time needed to complete and approve a mortgage application," Richards said. Alain agents, for example, can set up an escrow account and send the information via the Internet to Santa Clara Land Title. The title company then can assign the account a number and confirm with Alain via E-mail that a new escrow account has been established. Alain agents also can update information in the account as E-mail. Without the Internet, Alain in Saratoga, Calif., and Santa Clara in San Jose, Calif., would be unable to inter-communicate. "It's a way of doing business that's exciting because it's different, and it's a quick way to communicate," said Michele Whicker, systems administrator at Santa Clara. "It seems to be the way of the future." E-mail can create an electronic history of memorandums, letters and records, which Whicker said is "great when you're in the business of documenting everything." The electronic trail also reduces the chance for misunderstanding. Richards pointed out that an important next step is to connect mortgage companies with the Internet. He is working with Elliot Ames Inc. and First Intercity Mortgage. The Internet also offers Alain a benefit in added clients. "I've probably picked up three to four buyers every couple of months just from E-mail," said Alain agent Jeff Barnett. All of Alain's 250 agents have an Internet address on their business card. When clients see the Internet address on a business card, Richards says, they are very impressed. --------------------- 006) MULTIMEDIA MAGAZINE TO DEBUT ON INTERNET First there was "Internet Talk Radio," a weekly radio talk show broadcast to listeners tuned to their desktop computers. Now, get ready for The Electric Eclectic, the first Internet talking magazine. Nathaniel Borenstein, the magazine's creator and a member of the technical staff of Bellcore Corp. in Morristown, N.J., describes his creation as a multimedia "metamagazine." "I'm thinking more and more in terms of The Electric Eclectic not being so much a magazine as a do-it-yourself magazine construction kit," Borenstein said. Subscribers will be able to design their own virtual magazine based on continually evolving topics , or "threads," and choose the frequency of delivery. Computer-delivered magazines are not viewed as a threat to traditional magazines, according to some publishers. "It will be not so much a direct competitor as it will be for the customer's time," said Malcom S. Forbes Jr., president and chief executive of Forbes magazine. "The consumer is going to have more choices." Forbes adds, "We're looking and sniffing and willing to experiment. We're not wedded to the post office." The Electric Eclectic, to debut later this year as a non-commercial service to the Internet community, will display pictures, sound and text on a computer screen. Vinton G. Cerf, president of the Internet Society, plans to contribute an article, using sound, that shows how hearing-impaired people can benefit from computing and networking technology. Cerf is close to the subject -- he is hard of hearing and his wife is deaf. Borenstein said anyone with a PC or Macintosh and a few common hardware and software items should be able to experience The Electric Eclectic's multimedia attributes. Magazine threads will be transmitted using "store and forward," a technology that allows users to receive high-bandwidth materials on a low bit-rate modem by stretching out the transfer time. After the material is loaded into computer memory, it can be accessed and played back in real time. Information: To join a discussion list, send E-mail to ee-discuss-request@eitech.com with "subscribe" in the subject line (no quotes). --------------------- 007) TASK FORCE PROPOSES STANDARD TO SECURE CONTENTS OF E-MAIL The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recently proposed an Internet standard, called PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail), to verify a person's identity, and a message's validity. Currently, when a message is sent over the Internet using standard A22 E-mail, the receiving party is unable to authenticate, say, a credit card holder. There also is the danger that the contents of the message could fall into the wrong hands. PEM uses cryptographic techniques to secure E-mail. It can tell when a message has been altered and keep it secret from unintended recipients. Making the Internet safe for electronic transactions of goods and services also will help guard against credit card fraud and abuse. Only a few companies operating on the Internet accept credit cards at this time. Tabor Griffin Communications in San Diego sells HPC (High-Performance Computing) Select News over the Internet, and CARL (Colorado Association of Research Libraries) allows patrons to use credit cards to pay for document delivery services. Neither has ever had a problem. "Some people are very leery about giving their [credit card number] over the Internet," said Jennifer Tabor, manager of Tabor Griffin. However, "the only one that has access to it [the number] is our accounting department, " Tabor said. Despite PEM's new encryption methods, the banking industry does not recognize it. "It's worthless insofar as proving to a bank that a person made a credit card transaction," said Sean Donelan, a programmer at Data Research Associates, which sells a software package that includes features for taking on-line credit card orders. The American Bankers Association does not have a committee studying network use of credit cards because it does not consider the market big enough. Credit card giants, such as VISA U.S.A., though, are concerned with this potential problem. "Our operations and risk management departments share the same security concerns...that this type of network, not being private, could be susceptible to hacking," said Albert Coscia, a VISA spokesman. VISA is evaluating new methods of encrypting data for electronic transactions for a home shopping-type network. The IETF plans to vote next month on whether to make PEM a draft standard. Information: PEM is available via anonymous FTP, but federal regulations restrict its use in the United States and Canada. FTP: ftp.tis.com. Login: anonymous. Directory path: pub/P EM. Get: README, LICENSE and BUGS. --------------------- 008) INTERNET MERCANTILE STANDARDS EXPLORED The Internet took another step to build a framework for electronic commerce. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) plans to use existing Internet standards and and adapt them to create an Internet infrastructure for conducting business. The IETF recently met in Amsterdam for a "birds-of-a-feather" session to discuss Internet Mercantile Protocols (IMP). IMP would offer Internet consumers and companies a common way to automate and complete transactions using PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) and MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). "By leveraging PEM and MIME, we can do commerce over the Internet," said James "Chuck" Davin, a member of the technical staff of Bellcore Corp. who helped initiate the IMP project. Davin envisions a standard messaging format for companies to sell and deliver products in the form of bits, such as .GIF files or software, over the Internet. "But we're also thinking about the equivalent of a home shoppers' club over the Internet, where you're buying Elvis figurines over the Internet," Davin added. "Obviously, the Elvis figurines would be delivered by UPS." Information: Two mailing lists have been set up to discuss IMP: imp-interest@thumper.bellcore.com and imp-interest-request@thumper.bellcore.com. The minutes of the Amersterdam BOF meeting are available via anonymous FTP from thumper.bellcore.com. Directory path: pub/devetzis/imp. Get: imp-archive. -------------------- 009) GOPHER LICENSING FEE SPARKS DISPUTE Companies are shying away from paying the University of Minnesota a software licensing fee to use Gopher, instead taking advantage of rival freeware versions or not living up to the honor system. "They [companies] haven't given me a penny yet," said Shi-Pau Yen, director of computer and information service at the University of Minnesota, which developed Gopher. "What can I do? The university doesn't have the money to sue them." Companies such as Dacom R&D in South Korea and the computer book publisher O'Reilly & Associates use Gopher for marketing products, human resources, strategic planning and information center support. Last winter the university, faced with budget cutbacks, began charging companies that wanted to use its Gopher server code for commercial purposes. Companies are on the honor system to pay U of M when they retrieve the software from the university's anonymous FTP database. The decision to charge sparked heated debate in the business and academic communities that helped the university develop Gopher. Some groups were upset that they would be charged a user fee for pieces of their own code used in a product . "I don't know of anyone in business or academia who begrudges the University of Minnesota's receiving a revenue stream to support Gopher development," said Rich Wiggins, Gopher coordinator at Michigan State University. "It is the manner in which the commercial fees were imposed that concerns some people." Wiggins said the University of Minnesota, the sports teams of which are nicknamed the Golden Gophers, should create a completely voluntary "Internet Gopher Consortium," with low annual fees for individuals and organizations. "I believe such a consortium would easily draw thousands of members, providing a revenue stream in six figures," Wiggins said. As a result, John Franks, a mathematician at Northwestern University, wrote a competing product, called GN, and offered it for free on the Internet. GN is the only free UNIX server. "It was a bad decision on their part and hurt the use of Gopher," Franks said, referring to Minnesota's Gopher development team. The licensing fee "is going to deter most commercial enterprises that might do something pro bono." Under the site license, companies that want to use the university's Gopher server are required to pay an annual fee of $100 even if the information provided is a public service to the Internet community. For companies that intend to sell goods and services, the fee is higher. Companies with an annual gross income of up to $3 million are required to pay either $500 a year, or 2.5 percent of gross sales, whichever is bigger. Those with an annual gross income of more than $3 million pay the higher of either $2,500 or 2.5 percent of gross sales, not on the entire company but on the product or service sold on the Internet.Yen defended the site license, saying "it's very reasonable." A handful of companies are paying for a site license, though Yen could not recall which companies are paying a fee. "So why would you come to me?" said Mark McCahill, project leader of Minnesota's Gopher development team. "Mine works under high-volume conditions, and it will let you do neater stuff." -------------------- 010) FINDING GOPHER & GN To find new and current releases of Gopher and GN, contact the following: GOPHER: E-mail the University of Minnesota Gopher developers at gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu. New releases of Gopher software are announced on the gopher-news mailing list. To subscribe to the list, send an E-mail request to gopher-news-request@boombox.mi cro.umn.edu. There also is a USENET newsgroup (comp.infosystems.gopher) devoted to gopher technology. The gopher software is available via anonymous FTP from boombox.micro.umn.edu in the pub/gopher directory. GN: GN software is available via anonymous FTP from hopf.math.nwu.edu in the pub/GN directory. The best way to find out about GN is to point your Gopher at hopf.math.nwu.edu. The menu will display a complete directory of information, including installatio n manual and philosophy statement. Or contact john@math.nwu.edu. --------------------- 011) FROM SOFTWARE TO MAGAZINES, BUYING ELECTRONICALLY The Internet is opening doors for electronic storefronts -- and business is booming. So far, about eight commercial firms have created virtual stores using a Gopher server. They include Counterpoint Publishing, O'Reilly & Associates, The Internet Co., Novell Inc. and Whole Earth 'Lectronic Magazine. The stores allow consumers to buy products, mainly software and computer-related books, download technical manuals and browse through company information and services. The latest Internet merchant is Electronic Newsstand Inc., which sells magazine subscriptions and offers sample articles from each publication. "Magazine publishers are always looking for ways to acquire circulation," said Jeffrey Dearth, founder and chief executive of Electronic Newsstand. Publishing companies pay an annual fee of $2,500 to $5,000, depending on the frequency and size of the publication. For each subscription generated, companies are charged an additional $5 to $10. Electronic Newsstand takes 40 percent of the cover price for single-issue sales. In the view of traditional circulation expenses, "that's peanuts," said Dearth, who also is president of The New Republic magazine. Dearth said he envisions creating different virtual magazine shelves: sports, travel, politics, history, business and news. SunSITE, a service of Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., appears to be one of the most popular electronic storefronts. More than 14,500 files are downloaded daily from SunSITE, and about 50 countries, including Croatia, Latvia and South Africa, have used the free service, according to figures supplied by Sun. The biggest users are the United Kingdom, followed by Germany and Canada. Although SunSITE does not sell merchandise directly, the service has improved hardware sales, said Judy Gallegos, Sun's manager of strategic initiatives. On SunSITE, for example, there is "SunFlash," the company's newsletter, "sunspots," an electronic forum for exchanging information about Sun systems and "sun-managers," an electronic discussion group that provides network managers a quick response to technical problems. Establishing a global SunSITE network is Sun's over-arching plan, Gallegos said. Sun plans to create affiliate sites in Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan and in parts of Europe. These sites would offer software written in foreign languages and mirror many of the files at SunSITE, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Information: To access Electronic Newsstand, point your Gopher at gopher.netsys.com 2100 or telnet to gopher.netsys.com. Login: enews. For SunSITE access, Gopher to SunSITE.unc.edu (152.2.22.81). --------------------- 012) CIX LAUNCHES COMMERCIAL "INFORMATION" EXCHANGE The Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) is about to launch the Commercial "Information" Exchange, a new billboard service for businesses to advertise products and services via the Internet. The CIX will allow companies to post prices, product lines, services, specification sheets and related company materials. Companies will be required to pay a "modest" fee to maintain the database, and no fluffy ad copy is allowed. "Our hope is that it will support a culture which allows for commercial information but doesn't turn it into junk mail, and...antagonize people," said Bill Washburn, executive director of the CIX. The CIX is a nonprofit trade association of 19 Internet providers that share the goal of providing unrestricted commercial Internet access. Washburn said many companies are reluctant to advertise their products because they "don't want to be flamed to death. They are very antsy." The quality of merchandise and services will be monitored through the use of customer satisfaction questionaires. "Once we got any information that was negative, we would pull the plug," he said. The CIX database, similar to a phone book's yellow pages, will be divided into several categories, with items cross-categorized. It still is under construction. Contact: Bill Washburn, washburn@cix.org. Or point your Gopher at cix.org. --------------------- 013) SOME COMPANIES PREFER WAIS FOR BUILDING IN-HOUSE DATABASES Increasingly, companies are building their own internal databases with WAIS (Wide Area Information Server). KPMG Peat Marwick recently unveiled a WAIS (pronounced wayz) database for internal use. Other companies that use WAIS include Lockheed Corp. and Booz Allen and Hamilton Inc. The database allows Peat Marwick partners and consultants, for example, to gather information on prospective clients or find employees with specific job skills. It is divided into sections, including resumes, reports, skills, proposals and work-in-progre ss. "Information is our business," said Jeff Ott, manager of Peat Marwick's client server consulting group. "It's critical in an organization our size that the right hand know what the left hand is doing." Robin Palmer, senior manager of the client serve consulting group, said the accounting firm chose WAIS over Gopher for two key reasons: *Its simplicity in constructing searches using plain English queries. *Its ability to feed back information after a first search in order to conduct a secondary search. "It could be thousands of words in a document, and you can feed that back in," Palmer said. "That is very, very powerful." It is unclear whether Peat Marwick will make part of its WAIS database publicly available once its San Francisco bay area offices establish a 56Kb per second Internet connection via BARRnet. Said Ott: "We have not decided whether we want to be [accountin g] information publishers yet. It may be a little too progressive at this time." Peat Marwick is the only big accounting firm to use WAIS. --------------------- 014) MORE ON WAIS For a bibliography of WAIS-related documents, contact Barbara Lincoln Brooks: WAIS Inc.; 1040 Noel Dr.; Menlo Park, Calif. 94025, barbara@wais.com or +1 415 327 WAIS. For information on WAIS freewar e, contact Jane Smith of the Clearinghouse of Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR), jane.smith@cnidr.org or +1 919 248 9213.The freeware director is George Brett at ghb@jazz.concert.net or +1 919 962 1000. --------------------- 015) INTERNET TO ASSIST BETHANY IN ADOPTION SERVICES Plans to set up a global network among adoption agencies and governments via the Internet is underway at Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids, Mich. "We're trying to reach out to countries that are floundering in this area and give them some direction," said Andy Bass, Bethany's systems administrator. Bethany works with the governments of Vietnam, South Korea, Colombia and Romania to establish adoption-type agencies and teach them adoption procedures. "There's a lot of back and forth" when communicating with overseas governments about their adoption procedures and regulations, Bass said. E-mail via the Internet would eliminate telephone tag and the need for employees to get up at night to reach someone in a different time zone. It also would make information sharing more efficient and thus facilitate adoptions. Bethany finds homes for a few hundred foreign children every year, both in the United States and aboard. It also places several hundred U.S. children in homes throughout the United States each year. Bethany, a MichNet customer since March, is in the process of connecting its 55 branch offices across the United States with UUCP (UNIX-to-UNIX CoPy) links to the Internet. UUCP will give the offices the ability to communicate via E-mail and to receive news feeds but not to telnet or FTP (file transfer protocol). The organization's main office has a 56 Kb per second line to MichNet, a statewide network operated by Merit, a group of Michigan universities. Bethany also plans to use the Internet to find people who are interested in adoption. Bass is setting up a Gopher server for internal use, with an eye toward making it available publicly on the Internet. He wants to include listings of Bethany's branch offices, general adoption information and other services, including foster care and pregnancy counseling. "Right now, a lot of what we're doing is in the planning stages, tossing around ideas," Bass said, adding that the Internet "has a lot of potential." *************************************************************************** OTHER DEPARTMENTS *************************************************************************** 016) FAQ Q: Why would a company want to have an IP (Internet Protocol) network address? A: Most companies actually already have them. As TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) has become the most prevalent solution for companies to tie together all their diverse information systems and computers, their Information Systems d epartments have typically obtained registered unique IP network addresses as the first step in building their internal networks. (A few unfortunate companies have made up their own addresses and face major administrative problems when they try to connect to the "outside world.") If a company has not already obtained an IP address, it's likely they will soon, as virtually all computer operating systems now come bundled with TCP/IP for networking and device management. Q: How does a company get an "official" IP address? A: InterNIC (Network Information Center) Registration Services registers domains, IP organizations and autonomous systems. Network addresses are free, and you don't need an Internet connection to get one. InterNIC assigns between 1,000 and 8,000 IP (Inter net Protocol) network addresses every month. Registration forms and instructions are available via anonymous FTP at rs.internic.net. The templates directory contains the registration forms. Use FTP as your login and password. Completed forms can be sent to InterNIC via electronic mail, facsimile (+1 703 742 4811), or through the snail mail at Network Solutions; InterNIC Registration Services; 505 Huntmar Park Dr.; Herndon, Va. 22070. --------------------- 017) PROVIDERS' CIRCUIT Thousands of companies, large and small, are using the Internet to exchange E-mail and other data with corporate partners around the globe. Yet many simply don't know how to connect. For some it is a security concern; others aren't aware of the vast array of services available on-line. But many more simply don't know "how" to connect. There are three basic connection options. The simplest and least expensive -- typically $10 to $25 a month -- is dial-up access to a connection service. Here you don't actually connect to the Internet yourself. Instead, you run a terminal emulation that gives you access to E-mail, sometimes FTP and telnet. Generally, this type of service is adequate for small firms. The main drawback is that you cannot perform more than one task at a time. That means you won't be able to download a file and log in to a remote database for an interactive session all at the same time. The next upgrade is either SL(Serial Line Interface Protocol) or PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol), an Internet standard that is more robust than SLIP. SLIP or PPP also is a dial-up service. A modem on your local area network (LAN ) connects to a provider's host, which is connected directly to the Internet. The speed of the link is limited to the capability of the modem. The price jumps considerably with SLIP, but still is reasonable when compared with a dedicated line. Cost: about $160 to $250 a month, with a one-time installation fee of $1,500. The most costly option is to get a dedicated line, making your LAN an actual Internet node. Monthly fees range from about $500 a month for 19.2Kb per second to $5,000 a month for 1.544MB (T-1). While a dedicated connection is a low-cost way to create a wide area network (WAN), it also places your communications at the mercy of overall network activity, and throughput can fail from time to time. There's also the issue of security. The answer is to configure your routers to filter out unwanted packets. -------------------- 018) CIX CONTACTS Commercial Internet Exchange: Access Providers ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AlterNet/UUNET Technologies Inc. (Falls Church, Va.); 800 488 6384, 703 204 8000 or info@uunet.uu.net; U.S./International. BARRnet (San Francisco); 415 723 3104 or info@nic.barrnet.net; Northern/Central California. CERFNet (San Diego) 800 876 2373, 619 455 3900 or help@cerf.net; Western U.S./International. Connected Inc. (Kirkland, Wash.); 206 820 6639 or kmoore@hebron.connected.com; Pacific NW. Demon Internet Systems/Demon Internet Ltd. (London) +44 (0)81 349 0063 or internet@demon.co.uk; London/United Kingdom. EUnet (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); +31 20 592 5109 or info@eu.net; Europe, former Soviet Union and Northern Africa. Global Enterprise Services Inc., network JvNCNet (Princeton); 800 35TIGER, 609 897 7300 or market@jvnc.net; U.S./International. Hong Kong Supernet +852 358 6994 or info@HK.Super.Net; Southeast Asia and China. Iowanet (Des Moines); 515 830 0486 or kevin@ins.infonet.net; Midwest. NEARnet (Cambridge, Mass.); 617 873 8730 or nearnet-join@nic.near.net; NE U.S. Netcom - Online Communications Inc. (San Jose); 408 554 8649 or info@netcom.com; U.S. NORDUnet (Denmark) +45 45 938355 or Peter.Villemoes@uni-c.dk; Nordic countries. NorthWestNet (Bellevue, Wash.); 206 562 3000 or ehood@nwnet.net; Canada and NW U.S. PIPEX (Cambridge, U.K.); +44 223 250120 or pipex@pipex.net; United Kingdom. PSINet (Reston, Va.); 800 827 7482, 703 620 6651 or info@psi.com; U.S./International. THEnet (Austin, Tex.); 512 471 2400 or info@nic.the.net; Texas. Sprint/Sprintlink (Herndon, Va.); 703 904 2167 or bdoyle@icm1.icp.net; U.S./International. WestNet (Fort Collins, Colo.); 303 491 1577 or info@westnet.net; Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. World dot Net (Vancouver); 206 576 7147 or info@world.net; Pacific Northwest. --------------------- 019) TIP & TECHNIQUES Meet Rick Gates, former director of library automation at the University of Santa Barbara and now a student and lecturer at the University of Arizona. To Internet users, Gates is better known as the "Huntstigator" of "The Internet Hu nt." Gates explains that "The Hunt is a game of sorts." Every month he pulls together 10 questions that can be answered using freely accessible, publicly available Net resources. He ranks them for difficulty, from 1 (very easy) to 10 (very difficult). The questions are posted on the Internet, and Gates gives contestants a week to send him their E-mail entries, then posts the winners and the results. Gates launched the "Hunt" in September 1992 as an instructional game that would help people learn about the variety of information available on the Net. However, only a few dozen players participate each month. By far, the most popular use of the "Hunt" has been by people who use it as an instructional tool. The "Hunt" results always give the exact steps used to arrive at an answer. "This also provides a handy path for novices to follow and learn from," he said. Gates said the most interesting "Hunt" to date was in June when participants were given the E-mail address of stapleton@bpa.arizona.edu and asked to find out as much information about the person as possible. Turns out the man behind the Internet address is Dr. Ross Stapleton, who happens to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Information: To join the "Hunt," gopher to CICNet in Ann Arbor, Mich., at gopher.cic.net 70 for questions and answers, or FTP the files >from ftp.cic.net in the pub/internet-hunt/about directory and get 00readme.txt. --------------------- 020) POINTERS Iowa flood information is available in a temporary section of the ES-Gopher of Iowa State University Extension. Telnet: exnet.iastate.edu (129.186.20.200). Login: flood. The U.S. Commerce Department is offering Internetters free use of its Economic Bulletin Board until September 30. Telnet: ebb.stat-usa.gov (192.239.70.201). Login: trial; no password is required. You can search 16 general topic areas containing more than 2,000 files covering such topics as general economic indicators, foreign trade, U.S. Treasury auction results and regional economic statistics. Beginning Oct. 1, registration and usage fees will apply. Information: awilliams@esa.doc.gov or +1 202 482 1986. Five Democrats and two Republicans of the U.S. House of Representatives are participating in the Constitutent Electronic Mail System, a pilot project. The Democratic members include Reps. Sam Gejdenson (Conn.), George Miller (Calif.), Charlie Rose (N.C.), Pete Stark (Calif.) and Mel Watt (N.C.). Reps. Newton Gingrich (Ga.) and Jay Dickey (Ark.) are the Republicans. To get their E-mail addresses, you must write for them. The U.S. Capitol switchboard (+1 202 224 3121) will direct your call so you can get th e complete snail mail address. Contact: Congressional Comment Desk, comments@hr.house.gov to leave comments and suggestions. Receive White House releases on press briefings, executive orders, photo ops, through the Almanac Information Serve Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agricultuture. To subscribe to thisservice, send E-mail to almanac@esusda.gov. In the body of t he message, type: subscribe wh-summary. New White House E-mail lists are available. Send E-mail to clinton-info@campaign92.org. In the subject line, type RECEIVE followed by a subject: economy, foreign, social, speeches or news. To get off the list, type REMOVE and the subject . The Center for Electronic Records of the U.S. National Archives has prepared a description of reference services, including information on Securities and Exchange Commission data files, registration offering statistics and a list of corporations with annu al reports on file with the SEC. FTP: ftp.cu.nih.gov (128.231.64.7). Login: anonymous. Password: guest. Directory path: nara_electronic. Get file: CENTER, SERVICES and TITLE.LIST.JUL1693. Contact: tif@cu.nih.gov or +1 202 501 5579. The Library of Congress (LC) recently unveiled its own Gopher, called LC MARVEL (Machine-Assisted Realization of the Virtual Electronic Library). LC MARVEL is experimental and respresents a fraction of the library's collection. Telnet: marvel.loc.gov. Log in: marvel. Contact: LC MARVEL Design Team, lcmarvel@seq1.loc.gov with your comments or to offer information for publishing on LC MARVEL. The Nasdaq Financial Executive Journal (NFEJ), circulated in print to CEOs and CFOs of Nasdaq companies quarterly, is available electronically via Internet. NFEJ is a joint-study project of the Nasdaq Stock Market and the Legal Information Institute at Co rnell Law School. Telnet: fatty.law.cornell.edu (132.236.108.5). The Oak Software Repository is an experimental FTP server that contains the desktop publishing software used to design the hard copy version of The Internet Letter. The repository, a service of Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., has a vast collection of MS-DOS software. Use NcFTP to bypass login and passworrd. At prompt: ncftp oak.oakland.edu. Directory path: pub/msdos. Contact: Keith Peterson, w8sdz@Vela.ACS.Oakland.Edu for details on how to submit programs to the repository and subscribe to a mailing list on new MS-DOS uplo ads. The HEALTHLINE Gopher of the University of Montana Student Health Services offers information on mental health, sexuality, drug and alcohol addiction, as well as pointers to information for the disabled. HEALTHLINE is not meant to replace seeing a doctor but to provide general health and medical information. Gopher: selway.umt.edu 700. Telnet: consultant.micro.umn.edu. Login: gopher. Then follow the menus: Other Gophers and Information Servers, North America, Montana, HEALTHLINE. Contact: John-David Child s, jdc@selway.umt.edu, con_jdc@lewis.umt.edu. The Directory of U.S. Government Software for Mainframes and Microcomputers lists more than 800 pieces of government-developed software. Send $65, plus $3 shipping, to the National Technical Information Service. Information: +1 703 487 4650. RISKNet is a new electronic discussion list, that covers such topics as corporate risk management, underwriting cycles, insurance solvency and regulation and globalization of insurance markets. To join RISKNet, a service of the finance department at the U niversity of Texas at Austin, send E-mail to majordomo@bongo.cc.utexas.edu. In the body of the message, type: Subscribe RISKNet . Contact: James R. Garven, jgarven@mcl.cc.utexas.edu. --------------------- 021) TALK OF THE NET PRESIDENT CLINTON's E-mail address is PRESIDENT@Whitehouse.Gov. But the messages are actually received more than 30 miles away in Glenwood, Md., at Trusted Information Systems Inc. (TIS). The computers that hold Clinton's E-mail are being left at TIS until the White House, which began accepting E-mail from the public in June, clears floor space in the New Executive Office building. "The plan is moving ahead to move it down to the White House proper," said Fred Avolio, TIS leader for the White House E-mail project. TIS is involved in devising a secure link from the White House to the Internet. "I wouldn't have any comment on that," said Jonathan Gill, White House director of public access E-mail. TIS receives between 1,000 and 6,000 E-mail messages for the White House every day. Executive Office staff take the computer tapes to the White House to sort and transcribe them. COMPANIES RUSH to secure Internet trademarks. More than 54 trademarks using the word Internet are pending at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Almost all of them were filed within the last three years. Some April filings included: Internet Express, filed by Community News Service Inc. to provide on-line computer services; and Internet Expo, filed by International Data Group Inc., to organize an d sponsor conferences and expositions for network users. Internet Inc. in Reston, Va., sought to register five trademarks, including Internet Most -- a system that would manage the transmission of electronic data for financial and telecommunications servi ces. DACOM R&D REVEALS its strategic plans in a Gopher server on the Internet. The R&D center in South Korea calls itself the "nerve center" for telecommunications development. It is composed of the "highest level intellectuals," according to information con tained on the server. Dacom plans to develop radio communications services to allow users to exchange voice, data and images with other parties. Users will simply carry terminals and be connected to one another by a radio link -- any time and anywhere. In the information communications field, Dacom said it expects data communications to develop into enhanced intelligent data communications network services. Research also is underway to develop an information retrieval system and an automated document distribution system that would provide the latest technical information. A Dacom official declined a request for an E-mail interview. TECHNO-THRILLER SHAREWARE novel is available on the Internet via anonymous FTP. FTP: wuarchive.wustl.edu. Directory path: doc/misc. Get: termcomp.zip. PUBLIC OUTCRY over plans to put a mile-long inflatable billboard in Earth orbit has prompted the House and Senate to introduce legislation to ban space advertising. The Space Advertising Prohibition Act would deny launch licenses for space billboards, ban import of products advertised on space billboards and ask the president to seek an international agreement banning space advertising. --------------------- 022) WASHINGTON The Clinton administration still is fighting a federal court decision that would force the executive branch to archive E-mail messages. At stake, according to lawyers familiar with the case, is the discretionary rights of the White House to discard E-mail, both internal and external. U.S. District Judge Charles Richey prohibited the White House in January from purging computer backup tapes that contain E-mail messages >from the Reagan and Bush administrations. The administration appealed the ruling in June. A decision by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is expected by year-end. This ruling raises the question of how much E-mail should be saved in the private sector. Influencing Richey's decision was E-mail used by investigators during the Iran-Contra scandal. The E-mail helped prosecutors fill in vast gaps in their case. Richey said the messages were historically significant and therefore must be maintained. "The fact is, any message sent to the White House could end up in the public domain," said Mike Godwin, counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "I would advise people who are concerned about sensitive information to think long and hard about putting it in writing at all," Godwin said. "Anyone who thinks they can send E-mail to the White House and control what happens after that should talk to Ol lie North." Steven Metalitz, vice president and general counsel of the Information Industry Association, said E-mail has the same legal privacy protections as paper mail except when electronic correspondence is sent within a company. "It (electronic mail) may come back to haunt you because of the internal system," Metalitz said. He advised companies to establish policies on internal E-mail. Company policies "are not as widespread as they should be." It is estimated that about 30% of companies have them. "It's a sleeper issue for many companies," he said. --------------------- 023) READ ALL ABOUT IT Doing Business on the Internet: How the Electronic Highway Is Transforming American Companies, by Dr. Mary Cronin. Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN 0-442-01770-7. Price: $29.95. Contact: Cronin, cronin@bcvms.bc.edu or +1 617 552 3195. The Internet Navigator: A Guide to Network Exploration for the Individual Dial-Up User, by Paul A. Gilster. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-59782-1. Price: $24.95. Contact: Paul Farrell, +1 212 850 8633 . The Mac Internet Tour Guide, by Michael Fraase. Publisher: Ventana Press. ISBN: 1-566-04062-0. Price: $27.95. Contact: Diane Lennox, dilennox@aol.com or +1 919 942 0220. The Information Infrastructure Sourcebook, a single-volume reference source on efforts to define and develop a national information infrastructure. Price: $40. Contact: Graceann Todaro, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, kellerj@ksg1.harvard.edu, +1 617 496 4042. The Online World, a shareware book on using the Interent and other networks, by Odd de Presno. Available via anonymous FTP: oak.oakland.edu. Directory path: pub/msdos/info. Get: ONLINE10.ZIP. Contact: Odd de Presno, +47 370 31378, opresno@extern.uio.no. Internet Connections: A Librarian's Guide to Dial-Up Access and Use, by Mary E. Engle, Marilyn Lutz, William W. Jones Jr. and Genevieve Engel. Publisher: ALA Publishing Services. ISBN 0-838-97677-8. Price: $22. Contact: ALA Publishing, +1 312 280 5108 or 800 545 2433. Send submissions and review copies to netweek@access.digex.net, or Net Week Inc., PO Box 33024, Washington, DC 20033-0024. --------------------- 024) DATEBOOK Sept. 1-3--Learning Technologies for Educators, three-day workshop sponsored by Northwestern University's Academic Computing and Network Services, University Library and Apple Computer. Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill. Information: ltp@nwu.edu or +1 708 467 2443. Sept. 10, 24; Oct. 8, 22; Nov. 5 and Dec. 10--Federal Information Policy, an 18-credit certificate program on Information Resources Management in the Federal Government, offered by Syracuse University. The Greenburg House, Washington, D.C. Information: Linda Bennett, lswill@suvm.syr.edu or +1 315 443 2911. Sept. 13--Copyright Law in the Age of Technology, sponsored by the University of Iowa School of Library & Information Science. Days Inn Ironmen, Coralville, Iowa. Instructor: Laura N. Gasaway, director of law library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Information: Ethel Bloesch, ethel-bloesch@uiowa.edu or +1 319 335 5707. Oct. 13-15--Global Telecommunications Strategies Conference and Exhibition, sponsored by Pace University. Rye Town Hilton, Rye Brook, N.Y. Information: Scott Schlegel or David Wylie or 587-7669@MCI.COM or 800 546 3157. ************************************************************************ 30-DAY INTEROP SPECIAL (good until September 30) 40% Discount off the regular rate of $249/year Charter subscriptions: $149/year -- a 40% discount. Universities and nonprofits $95/year. If you not completely satified, your money will be refunded. You can receive The Internet Letter electronically or on paper. Please check below. Fax your order: +1 202 342 0662 Mail: Net Week Inc. PO Box 33024 Washington, DC 20033-0024 800 Net Week (638 9335) E-mail: netweek@access.digex.net ______ Yes, I want to subscribe to The Internet Letter. I will receive 12 monthly issues at the charter subscription rate of $149 a year, a 40% discount off the regular price. I will be billed annually until my cancellation. ______ Yes, I want to subscribe to the Internet Letter. I will receive 12 monthly issues for the university and nonprofit rate of $95 a year. I will be billed annually until my cancellation. ______ Printed version ______ Electronic version ______ American Express Card No.______________________________________ Expiration Date_______________________________ ______ Check Enclosed Name____________________________________________________________________ Title___________________________________________________________________ Organization____________________________________________________________ Address_________________________________________________________________ City_________________________State___________________Zip________________ ************************************************************************