[ netinfo/what-registration-services-are.txt]                     [ 3/93 ]


		 INTERNIC REGISTRATION SERVICES          

The InterNIC Registration Services is located at Network Solutions,
Inc., Herndon, VA, and is funded by a cooperative agreement from the         
National Science to provide assistance in registering networks, domains,
asn's, and other entities to the Internet community  via telephone, 
electronic mail, and U.S. postal mail.

Registration Services will work closely with domain administrators,
network coordinators, internet service providers, and other various 
users to register Internet domains, asn's, networks.  

Databases and information servers of interest to network users are
provided, including the WHOIS registry of domains, networks, asn's and 
their associated poc's.  Gopher and Wais interfaces are also available 
for retrieving information and accessing whois.  Online documents     
maintained at registration services include registration related rfc's,
registration templates, and various netinfo files.   Many of the online
files are available through our automatic mail service, 
MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET.  

Registration Services will assign asn's, register domains assigns IP
network numbers and Autonomous System Numbers, and produce the domain 
zone files for the community.  Registration Services will also provide
assistance to user's concerning policy and the status of their existing
registration request.  


I.   USER ASSISTANCE SERVICE

Toll-free telephone service is available Monday through Friday, 7 am
to 7 pm, Eastern Standard time.  Users who require assistance concerning 
policy or registration status questions are encouraged to make use 
of these services:  

     Phone Number:             1-703-742-4777 


II.  NIC ONLINE MAILBOXES

To contact Registration Services via electronic mail 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, use these mailboxes:

     HOSTMASTER@INTERNIC.NET  Host, domain, network changes and updates
     ACTION@INTERNIC.NET      Computer Operations   
     MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET Automatic mail service


III. InterNIC Registration Services Postal Address

Send U.S. postal mail correspondence to:


     Network Solutions 
     AttN: InterNIC Registration Services 
     505 Huntmar Park Drive 
     Herndon, VA 22070 
 

IV.  REGISTRATION COMPUTER SERVICES 

The host computer is a SUN SparcServer, running the SUN operating
system, and its hostname is RS.INTERNIC.NET. Its network address is 
198.41.0.5.  

The network address of Registration Services domain root server is 
198.41.0.4.   

Online services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


V.   DOCUMENTS DISTRIBUTED BY REGISTRATION SERVICES 

Registration Services distributes the following documents which are available 
online. 

Title	 			                          Online Filename

 master.index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .policy/master.index

   
 NOTE: In the filenames, the "nn" or the "nnn" should be replaced by the
       number of the newsletter, bulletin or RFC. 

To retrieve a document whose filename is listed above, open an FTP
connection to the FTP.RS.INTERNIC.NET host, login as user ANONYMOUS and 
provide the password GUEST. Retrieve the desired file.


VI.  ONLINE INFORMATION SERVERS


a.     WHOIS

WHOIS is a program that provides an electronic "white pages"
of Internet network entities such as domains, network numbers, asn's,
and their associated poc's.  
				
     Accessing WHOIS

From a host, use the TELNET program to connect to host RS.INTERNIC.NET.
When greeted by the Registration host, type "WHOIS" and press RETURN.


c.   QUERY CAPABILITIES 

Registration Services has implemented Gopher and Wais interfaces to 
query for information.  Using the Gopher Interface, one can obtain 
information on registration, information and directory services for the
InterNIC team.  Using gopher one can also access archive data, netinfo 
files, and policy related documents.  The Wais interface enables a user 
to access the whois database and search for data using a specific 
search string.   

     Accessing Gopher and Wais 


From a host, use the TELNET program to connect to host RS.INTERNIC.NET.
Type "Gopher" or "Wais" and press RETURN.


e.     ROOT DOMAIN NAME SERVER

Registation Services  is responsible for generating and installing the DNS files
into the NS.INTERNIC.NET root server and the seven alternate root servers
three times a weekly (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).  


VII. ONLINE FILES

Registration Services  maintains a number of online files which are available to
network subscribers via the file transfer program (FTP) or Kermit.
These files contain information about protocols, site personnel,
hosts, and other subjects relevant to network users.  See the file
netinfo/00netinfo-index.txt for an index to the files in the "netinfo"
directory.  See also the file master.index in the policy directory
which lists the rfc's available.    

a. How to Retrieve files Using FTP

To retrieve any of the public files via your local FTP program,
connect to the FTP.RS.INTERNIC.NET host, and log in as ANONYMOUS with password
GUEST.  FTP program use varies slightly from host to host, so please
consult your Host Administrator for instructions, if needed.


b. How to Use the Automated Mail Service

MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET is an automated service provided by InterNIC
Registration Services.  It allows access to documents and
information via ordinary electronic mail.  This is especially useful
for users who do not have access to the NIC via a direct Internet
link, such as users of BITNET, CSNET and UUCP sites.

   To use the mail service, send a mail message to MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET.
In the SUBJECT field, request the type of service you wish followed by
any needed arguments.  The message body is normally ignored.  Large files
will be broken into smaller separate messages.  The information you
request will be sent back to you as soon as possible.

The following services are currently available:

INDEX           Returns the master list of available index files.
NETINFO xxx     xxx is a file name or the word INDEX.
TEMPLATES xxx   xxx is the template required.
POLICY xxx      xxx is a file name or the word INDEX.
SEND xxx        xxx is a fully specified file name.
WHOIS xxx       Returns information about xxx from the WHOIS service.
                Use "WHOIS HELP" for information on how to use WHOIS.

Example SUBJECT lines:

    HELP
    POLICY INDEX
    TEMPLATES DOMAIN-TEMPLATE.TXT
    SEND templates/domain-template.txt
    WHOIS KOSTERS, MARK

Send comments or suggestions to ACTION@INTERNIC.NET. 

IX. HOST, DOMAIN, NETWORK NUMBER, IN-ADDR, AND ASN REGISTRATION

Registration is responsible for the registration of domains, IP
networks, and autonomous systems numbers (ASNs) used by various
organizations connected to the Internet.

Domains are registered via the domain template found in
templates/domain-template.txt.  New domain information is installed into
the seven DNS root servers three times a week.    Information
regarding the root servers is kept in netinfo/root-servers.txt.
Additionally, a listing of the domains registered with Registration
Services can be found in netinfo/domain-info.txt.  A listing of the
netaddresses of the domain servers for individual top-level domains can
be found in netinfo/domains.txt.

Network number assignments are made when a network POC completes the
template in templates/internet-number-template.txt and returns the
template to Hostmaster.  A complete listing of government sponsored
networks is found in netinfo/networks.txt.

To provide address to hostname reverse resolution, IN-ADDR domains are
registered within the domain root servers via an IN-ADDR template sent
to the HOSTMASTER mailbox.  This template can be found in
templates/in-addr-template.txt.

Registration Services assign autonomous system numbers (ASNs) when the template
found in netinfo/asn-template.txt is sent to HOSTMASTER@RS.INTERNIC.NET.
A complete listing of assigned ASNs is found in netinfo/asn.txt.

From the domain, network number, and ASN templates, POC information is
extracted and individuals that are not already registered are given
records in the WHOIS database.
