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A record
A
Domain Name System
(
DNS
) record that holds an
Internet Protocol version 4
(
IPv4
) address for a
domain name
.
Also Known As
IPv4 address record
Related Terms
Domain Name System
(DNS)
authoritative name server
Internet Protocol version 4
(IPv4)
A-label
The
ASCII-compatible encoding
of a valid
Internationalized Domain Names in Applications
(
IDNA
)
label
.
A-label
s consist of the prefix “xn--” followed by a valid
Punycode
string
.
Related Term
Unicode Standard
AAAA record
A
Domain Name System
(
DNS
) record that holds an
Internet Protocol version 6
(
IPv6
) address for a
domain name
.
Also Known As
IPv6 address record
Related Terms
Domain Name System
(DNS)
authoritative name server
Internet Protocol version 6
(IPv6)
Accountability and Transparency Review
(ATRT Review)
A periodic review required by the
ICANN Bylaws
to assess
ICANN
’s execution of its commitment to maintain and improve robust mechanisms for public input, accountability, and transparency. The
ATRT Review
is designed to ensure that the outcomes of
ICANN
’s decision-making reflect the public interest and are accountable to the Internet community.
Section 4.6 in the
ICANN Bylaws
provides details about performing an
ATRT Review
. Reports from past
ATRT Review
s are available on the
ICANN
website, along with progress updates for any
ATRT Review
s that are underway.
Related Terms
Registration Directory Service Review
(RDS Review)
Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice Review
(CCT Review)
Specific Reviews
Security, Stability, and Resiliency of the Domain Name System (DNS) Review
(SSR Review)
Website
https://www.icann.org/resources/reviews/specific-reviews/atrt
accountability mechanisms
Mechanisms established in the
ICANN Bylaws
that enable review and reconsideration of
ICANN
’s actions. These mechanisms are:
Empowered Community
Reconsideration
Independent Review Process
Ombudsman
Related Terms
root zone
Security, Stability, and Resiliency
(SSR)
Website
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#IV
Address Supporting Organization
(ASO)
One of three
Supporting Organization
s in the
ICANN community
. The
ASO
reviews and develops recommendations and advises the
ICANN
Board on global Internet number resource policy.
The
ASO
Address Council manages the global policy development activities of the
ASO
.
Related Terms
Generic Names Supporting Organization
(GNSO)
Country Code Names Supporting Organization
(ccNSO)
Website
https://aso.icann.org/
Address Supporting Organization Address Council
(ASO AC)
A council within the
Address Supporting Organization
(
ASO
) that manages the
ASO
’s global
policy development process
. This council is composed of 15 members, including 3 representatives from each of the Regional Internet Registries. The members of this council also serve on the
Number Resource Organization
Number Council.
Website
https://aso.icann.org/
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA)
An agency within the U.S. Department of Defense established in 1958 to research advanced defense technology. The agency, later renamed the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(D
ARPA
), funded and coordinated some of the initial technology for the modern Internet.
Also Known As
DARPA
Related Terms
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA)
Domain Name System
(DNS)
Website
Darpa.mil
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
(ARPANET)
A pioneering network for sharing digital resources among geographically separated computers. Its initial demonstration in 1969 led to the Internet, whose world-changing consequences unfold on a daily basis today. A seminal step in this sequence took place in 1968 when
ARPA
contracted BBN Technologies to build the first routers, which one year later enabled
ARPANET
to become operational.
Website
https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/arpanet
Advisory Committee
(AC)
A formally recognized body under the
ICANN Bylaws
that is charged with advising the
ICANN
Board on policies within
ICANN
’s mission and scope. The Bylaws recognize four
AC
s:
At-Large Advisory Committee
(
ALAC
)
Governmental Advisory Committee
(
GAC
)
Root Server System Advisory Committee
(
RSSAC
)
Security and Stability Advisory Committee
(
SSAC
)
The
Advisory Committee
s help shape the policy recommendations that the
ICANN community
develops and refines through its
Supporting Organization
s.
Related Term
Supporting Organization
(SO)
Africa Top Level Domains Organization
(AfTLD)
A nonprofit association of
country code top-level domain
(
ccTLD
) registries in the African region.
AfTLD
provides a forum where its members can discuss policy matters affecting the
ccTLD
registries in their region. The association also serves as a channel of communication between its membership and Internet governance bodies such as
ICANN
.
Related Terms
Latin American and Caribbean Country Code Top-Level Domain Association
(LACTLD)
Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association
(APTLD)
Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries
(CENTR)
Website
http://www.aftld.org/
African Network Information Centre
(AFRINIC)
The
Regional Internet Registry
(
RIR
) that allocates
Internet Protocol
(
IP
) addresses to Africa.
Related Terms
Asia Pacific Network Information Centre
(APNIC)
Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre
(RIPE NCC)
Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry
(LACNIC)
Number Resource Organization
(NRO)
American Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN)
Website
https://www.afrinic.net/
African Regional At-Large Organization
(AFRALO)
The
Regional At-Large Organization
(
RALO
) that serves as the main forum and coordination point for public input to
ICANN
from the At-Large community in the African region.
AFRALO
keeps the
At-Large Structure
s (
ALS
es) in its community informed about significant
ICANN
news. It also establishes mechanisms to facilitate two-way communication between the
ALS
es and
ICANN
policymakers, so
ALS
members can share their views on pending issues.
Related Terms
North American Regional At-Large Organization
(NARALO)
Asian, Australasian, and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization
(APRALO)
Latin American and Caribbean Islands Regional At-Large Organization
(LACRALO)
European Regional At-Large Organization
(EURALO)
Website
https://atlarge.icann.org/ralos/afralo
American Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN)
The
Regional Internet Registry
(
RIR
) that allocates
Internet Protocol
(
IP
) addresses to Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States.
Related Terms
African Network Information Centre
(AFRINIC)
Asia Pacific Network Information Centre
(APNIC)
Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre
(RIPE NCC)
Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry
(LACNIC)
Number Resource Organization
(NRO)
Website
https://www.arin.net/
Annual General Meeting
(AGM)
The third Public Meeting in
ICANN
’s three-meeting annual cycle. This meeting features workshops, working meetings, and sessions on topics of interest. Additionally, it provides two
Public Forum
s where the
ICANN community
can speak directly with the
ICANN
Board. New members of the
ICANN Board of Directors
also take their seats at the
Annual General Meeting
.
Related Terms
Policy Forum
Community Forum
ICANN Public Meeting
Anti-Phishing Working Group
(APWG)
A global coalition of industry, law enforcement, and governments that work to unify the global response to
phishing
attacks and other cybercrimes. The
APWG
is a clearinghouse for cybercrime event data, cybercrime response utilities, and programs that promote cybercrime awareness and research.
ICANN
is a participant in the
APWG
.
Related Term
Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group
(M3AAWG)
Website
https://www.antiphishing.org/
anycast instance
A server that responds to an anycast
Internet Protocol
(
IP
) address. With anycast routing, a server is replicated across multiple network locations. The servers are then assigned to the same anycast
IP address
. Each server assigned to that
IP address
is referred to as an
anycast instance
(or simply an
instance
). When a computer sends a message to an anycast
IP address
, Internet routers automatically direct the message to the nearest (in terms of routing distance) available instance of that server. Anycast routing helps reduce latency and improve reliability.
Many of the
authoritative name server
s in the
Domain Name System
use anycast routing.
Related Term
root server instance
applicant
An entity applying to
ICANN
for a
new generic top-level domain
(
gTLD
) within a designated
application submission period
.
Related Term
generic top-level domain
(gTLD)
Applicant Guidebook
In the New Generic Top-Level Domain Program (
New gTLD Program
), a document that describes the requirements of the
gTLD
application and evaluation processes.
Related Term
application round
Website
https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/agb
application round
In the New Generic Top-Level Domain Program (
New gTLD Program
), the completion of the application process for all
gTLD
applications received during one
application submission period
. The
Applicant Guidebook
explains the terms and conditions for a specific
application round
. Subsequent
round
s are subject to updated guidebooks.
Also Known As
new gTLD application round
round
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RFC 1296: Internet Growth (1981-1991)

RFC 1296: Internet Growth (1981-1991) | RFC Editor
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Info
RFC
1296
:
Internet Growth (1981-1991)
M. Lottor
Informational
Network Working Group                                          M. Lottor
Request for Comments: 1296                             SRI International
                                      Network Information Systems Center
                                                            January 1992
Internet Growth (1981-1991)
Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

Abstract

   This document illustrates the growth of the Internet by examination
   of entries in the Domain Name System (DNS) and pre-DNS host tables.
   DNS entries are collected by a program called ZONE, which searches
   the Internet and retrieves data from all known domains.  Pre-DNS host
   table data were retrieved from system archive tapes.  Various
   statistics are presented on the number of hosts and domains.

Table of Contents

   Introduction....................................................
1
How ZONE Works..................................................
2
Problems with Data Collection...................................
3
Scope of the Study..............................................
3
N
. Results......................................................
4
N.1
Number of Internet Hosts....................................
4
N.2
Number of Domains...........................................
6
N.3
Distribution of IP Addresses per Host.......................
7
N.4
Distribution of Hosts by Top-level Domain...................
7
N.5
Distribution of Hosts by Host Name..........................
8
Future Issues...................................................
8
RFC References..................................................
9
Security Considerations.........................................
9
Author's Address................................................
9
Introduction

   This document provides statistics on the growth of the Internet by
   examining the number of Internet hosts and domains over a 10-year
   period.  Before the Domain Name System was established, practically
   all hosts on the Internet were registered with the Network
   Information Center (SRI-NIC) and entries were placed in the Official
   Host Table for each one.  Data on the number of hosts for pre-DNS
Lottor                                                          [Page 1]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
years comes from copies of the host table at selected times.  The DNS
   system was introduced around 1984 but took almost 4 years before it
   was fully implemented on the Internet.  However, by this time many
   hosts were no longer registered in the Host Table.

   In 1986, the ZONE (Zealot Of Name Edification) program was written.
   ZONE was originally intended to be used during the host-table-to-DNS
   transition period.  ZONE would "walk" the DNS tree and build a host
   table of all the information it collected.  This host table could
   then be used by sites that had not yet made the DNS transition.
   However, ZONE was never used for this purpose.  Instead, it was found
   to be useful for collecting statistics on the size of the domain
   system and the Internet.

   ZONE could not collect complete data on the DNS until around 1988,
   because early versions of BIND (the popular Unix DNS implementation)
   had major problems with the zone transfer function of the DNS
   protocol.  ZONE has been used in varying ways ever since to collect
   this information.  In the first few years, it was used to produce a
   wall-size chart of the domain tree.  However, the number of domains
   quickly outgrew the size of the wall and the charts were abandoned.
   In later years, statistics on the number of hosts and domains were
   extracted from the resulting host table, sometimes categorizing data
   based on top-level domain names or on computer system type or
   manufacturer.

   The time to gather the data also grew from hours to a week, and the
   size of the host table produced soon reached 50 megabytes.  In order
   to reduce the amount of data collected, ZONE is now run in a mode
   collecting only host names and IP addresses, ignoring protocol, host
   information and MX record data.  The host table is then groveled over
   by some utilities (such as sort, uniq and grep) to produce the
   statistics required.  ZONE is currently run every 3 months at SRI.

How ZONE Works

   ZONE maintains a list of domains and their servers and a flag
   indicating whether information for a domain has been successfully
   loaded from one of the servers. Because of another bug in BIND, ZONE
   must be primed with a list of all the top-level domains and their
   name servers.  It then cycles through the domain list, attempting to
   contact one of the servers for each domain not yet transferred.  When
   a server is contacted (via TCP), a Start of Authority (SOA) query is
   first sent to make sure the server is authoritative for the domain
   being requested.  If so, then a zone transfer query (AXFR) is sent to
   request all the resource records for the domain to be retrieved.

   When a name server record (NS) is received, the referenced domain and
Lottor                                                          [Page 2]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
server are added to the list of domains to process.  When host
   records (A, CNAME, HINFO, MX) are received, they are added to an in-
   core table of host information.  The program ends when it has cycled
   through the entire list of domains without receiving any new
   information.  It then dumps the table of host information to a
   HOSTS.TXT format file.

Problems with Data Collection

   For various reasons, some Internet sites do not allow zone transfers
   of their domain servers.  ZONE also eventually gives up trying to
   transfer a domain after too many failures.  The number of domains
   that could not be zone transferred during the 1-Jan-92 ZONE run was
   around 800 out of 17,000.  Additionally, it is assumed that not all
   hosts on the Internet are registered in a domain server.  These
   problems cause the statistics gathered by ZONE to be lower than the
   actual amounts.

   Manual review of some of the data collected by ZONE also shows a lot
   of random entries in the DNS.  Misformatted entries may cause bogus
   server or host records to appear.  Many times a server is found to
   not be authoritative for the domain listed.  Sometimes entire domains
   are renamed and their old entries left in place for a transition
   period, thus causing each host within that domain to be counted
   twice.  These problems cause the results of ZONE to be higher than
   the actual amounts.

   Manual scanning of the data indicates that the additional entries are
   insignificant compared to the missing entries discussed earlier.
   ZONE data can thus be viewed as the minimum number of Internet hosts,
   and not the actual figures.

   A final problem with data collection is that of expense.  Downloading
   domain information from every domain on the Internet generates a
   large amount of network traffic.  It also puts an extra CPU load on
   each domain server it must contact.  An organized effort might be
   considered to have only one such program doing this on the Internet
   at regularly scheduled intervals to keep the problem of multiple data
   collectors from occurring.

Scope of the Study

   A problem with counting hosts and domains on the Internet is defining
   what the Internet really is.  Finding host entries in the DNS does
   not necessarily indicate that the host is reachable from the
   Internet.  Many companies have mail gateways between the Internet and
   their local nets, thus disallowing direct access.  However, some of
   these companies advertise all their hosts, and some advertise only
Lottor                                                          [Page 3]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
the gateway.  Are these hosts on the Internet or not?

   Furthermore, many domains in the DNS are just mail-forwarding (MX)
   entries for off-Internet (such as Usenet) sites.  Are these domains
   really part of the Internet and should they be counted in an Internet
   size study?

   For the purposes of this study, a host has been defined as a
   [name(s),IP-address(es)] grouping discovered from the DNS.  This
   prevents us from counting a host with multiple names or addresses
   more than once.  However, this does not consider whether the host is
   directly accessible or not.  When ZONE counts the number of domains
   it includes all domains referenced by an NS record in the DNS, thus
   including MX-only domain sites in the final results.
N
. Results
This section presents data from archive tapes of SRI-NIC from 1981 to
   1986, and statistics gathered by runs of ZONE from 1986 to 1992.
N.1
Number of Internet Hosts
The chart below shows the number of IP hosts on the Internet.  These
   are hosts with at least one IP address assigned.  Data was collected
   by ZONE except where noted.  The following two sections are graphs of
   the data in this chart.

        Date             Hosts

        08/81              213          Host table #152
        05/82              235          Host table #166
        08/83              562          Host table #300
        10/84            1,024          Host table #392
        10/85            1,961          Host table #485
        02/86            2,308          Host table #515
        11/86            5,089
        12/87           28,174
        07/88           33,000
        10/88           56,000
        01/89           80,000
        07/89          130,000
        10/89          159,000
        10/90          313,000
        01/91          376,000
        07/91          535,000
        10/91          617,000
        01/92          727,000
Lottor                                                          [Page 4]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
Number of Internet Hosts (linear)
800|
780|
760|
740|                                                                  *
720|
700|
680|                                                                 .
660|
640|
620|
600| T                                                              *
580| h
560| o
540| u
520| s                                                             *
500| a
480| n                                                            .
460| d
440| s
420|                                                             .
400| o
380| f
360|                                                            *
340| H                                                         .
320| o
300| s                                                        *
280| t
260| s                                                       .
240|                                                        .
220|                                                       .
200|                                                      .
180|                                                     .
160|
140|                                                    *
120|                                                   *
100|                                                 ..
 80|                                                *
 60|                                               .
 40|                                              *
 20|                                       ..*...*
  0|...*....*......*......*.....*.*....*...
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    8     8     8     8     8     8     8     8     8     9     9     9
    1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     0     1     2
                                   Date
    "*"  = data point,  "." = estimate
This graph is a linear plot of the number of Internet hosts.
Lottor                                                          [Page 5]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
Number of Internet Hosts (logarithmic)

    | 1000000
    |                                                                *.*
    |                                                        ..*.*..*
    |                                                     ...
    | 100000                                          ..**
    |                                              *.*
  H |                                          ...*
  o |                                        .*
  s | 10000                                ..
  t |                                    ..
  s |                               ....*
    |                         ...*.*
1000|                   ...*..
    |                ...
    |            ...*
    | ..*....*...
 100|.
     -------------------------------------------------------------------
     8     8     8     8     8     8     8     8     8     9     9     9
     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     0     1     2
                                    Date

     "*"  = data point,  "." = estimate

This graph is a logarithmic plot of the number of Internet hosts.
N.2
Number of Domains
This chart shows the number of domains existing in the Internet
   Domain Name System as collected by ZONE.

        Date           Domains

        07/88              900
        10/88            1,280
        01/89            2,600
        07/89            3,900
        10/89            4,800
        10/90            9,300
        01/91           11,200
        07/91           16,000
        10/91           18,000
        01/92           17,000
Lottor                                                          [Page 6]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
N.3
Distribution of IP Addresses per Host
This chart shows how many hosts have how many IP addresses.  This
   data was collected on 1-Jan-92 and only the first 10 entries are
   shown.

     Addresses           Hosts

         1              715143
         2                9015
         3                1027
         4                 556
         5                 314
         6                 213
         7                 100
         8                  85
         9                  58
        10                  71
N.4
Distribution of Hosts by Top-level Domain
This chart shows the number of hosts per top-level domain (top 40
   only) on 1-Jan-92.  The percentage listed is the increase since 1-
   Oct-91.  Large variations are probably due to problems and variations
   in the collection process; these figures are not meant to be
   authoritative, but serve as reasonable estimates.

   243020 edu 13%     13011 fr    4%     1791 dk   4%     357 be  -5%
   181361 com 12%     12770 nl   21%     1662 es  15%     334 gr  14%
    46463 gov 13%     12647 ch   10%     1506 kr   9%     308 br  26%
    31622 au  19%     11994 fi   15%     1111 nz -16%     284 mx  -5%
    31016 de  20%     10228 no    9%     1016 tw  n/a     207 is   0%
    27492 mil 26%      8579 jp    6%      929 za  n/a     146 pl  97%
    27052 ca  22%      4109 net -49%      784 pt  n/a     127 us  25%
    19117 org 10%      3324 at   19%      484 sg 251%      25 tn   0%
    18984 uk 139%      2719 it  197%      448 hk  78%      24 hu  71%
    18473 se  34%      2020 il   14%      374 ie  -7%       6 arpa 0%
Lottor                                                          [Page 7]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
N.5
Distribution of Hosts by Host Name
This chart shows the distribution of hosts by their host name on 1-
   Jan-92.  The host name is defined to be the first part of a fully
   qualified domain name.  Only the top 100 names are shown.
384
venus
204 mac4       172 mac9        155 pollux     138 chaos
356
pluto
201 hobbes     172 mac11       155 frodo      136 bart
323
mars
201 hermes     170 mac8        153 helios     135 pc5
288
jupiter
198 thor       169 phoenix     152 mac17      135 larry
286
saturn
198 sirius     169 mac12       151 vega       135 cs
285
pc1
196 gw         169 hal         151 mac18      133 odin
282
zeus
195 calvin     168 snoopy      150 falcon     131 tiger
262
iris
194 mac5       168 mac13       150 bach       131 sparky
260
mercury
191 mac10      167 mac15       146 castor     131 ariel
259
mac1
190 fred       167 mac14       145 sol        130 sneezy
258
orion
189 titan      167 grumpy      145 dopey      128 mac
254
mac2
189 pc3        163 gandalf     144 mac20      127 sun1
240
newton
186 opus       162 pc4         144 mac19      127 rocky
234
neptune
186 mac6       160 uranus      142 spock      126 pc6
233
pc2
185 charon     159 mac16       142 euler      125 hydra
224
gauss
185 apollo     158 sleepy      141 mickey     125 homer
222
eagle
179 mac7       158 io          141 atlas      124 isis
213
mac3
179 athena     157 earth       140 maxwell    123 moe
209
merlin
177 alpha      156 europa      140 happy      123 delta
207
cisco
172 mozart     155 rigel       140 doc        122 pc10

Future Issues

   ZONE currently runs on a DECsystem-20 and is written in assembler.
   The amount of data is quickly reaching the limits of the DEC-20
   section address space, and the hardware's ability to survive gets
   slimmer each day.  ZONE assembles all its data in core before dumping
   it to disk.  The implementation does this in order to be able to
   match host nicknames with official names before dumping complete host
   records.  Sometimes a nickname can be in a different domain than the
   official name, complicating simpler methods.

   A new version of ZONE needs to be written to run on a modern computer
   system.  A completely new architecture should be designed to handle
   the enormous amount of data collected and expected in the future.
   Data should be kept on disk so that a system crash will not wipe out
   days of collection.  Multiple zone transfers could be occurring in
   parallel to reduce the time needed for data gathering.  A new ZONE
   might run continuously, cycling through the domain system on a cycle
   lasting weeks to a month, updating a local database with statistics
   collected for each domain.  In this way, current statistics on the
   size of the Internet would always be known.  The resulting database
Lottor                                                          [Page 8]
RFC 1296
Internet Growth (1981-1991)           January 1992
may also be useful for other network information services.

RFC References

   Libes, D., "Choosing a Name for Your Computer",
RFC 1178
, Integrated
   Systems Group/NIST, August 1990.  (Also FYI 5.)

   Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Implementation and Specification",
RFC 1035
, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.

   Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - Concepts and Facilities",
RFC 1034
,
   USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.

   Lazear, W., "MILNET Name Domain Transition",
RFC 1031
, Mitre,
   November 1987.

   Harrenstien, K. Stahl, M., and J. Feinler, "DoD Internet Host Table
   Specification", SRI, October 1985.

   Postel, J., "Domain Name System Implementation Schedule - Revised",
RFC 921
, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1984.

Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Author's Address

   Mark K. Lottor
   SRI International
   Network Information Systems Center
   333 Ravenswood Avenue, EJ282
   Menlo Park, CA  94025

   EMail: mkl@nisc.sri.com

Lottor                                                          [Page 9]
RFC
1296
: Internet Growth (1981-1991)
Informational


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RFC 1400: Transition and Modernization of the Internet Registration Service | RFC Editor
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Info
RFC
1400
:
Transition and Modernization of the Internet Registration Service
S. Williamson
Informational
Network Working Group                                     S. Williamson
Request for Comments: 1400                      Network Solutions, Inc.
                                                             March 1993
Transition and Modernization
of the Internet Registration Service
Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

Discussion

   As a result of the NREN NIS award by National Science Foundation,
   non-DDN registration services will soon be transferred from the DDN
   NIC to the new Internet Registration Service, which is a part of an
   entity referred to as the InterNIC.  References in this document to
   the InterNIC apply to the Registration Services portion only.

   Internet registration services are gradually transitioning to the
   InterNIC.  We expect that the full transition will be accomplished by
   April 1, 1993.  During this transitional period, EMail, Fax, and U.S.
   mail received at either site will be processed.  DDN users will
   continue to receive full registration support from the DDN NIC, and
   the transition should be transparent to them.  DDN users should
   continue to send registration requests to hostmast@nic.ddn.mil (IP,
   .mil domain, inaddr for 26.x.x.x) or registrar@nic.ddn.mil (user
   registrations or TAC card requests) using the DISA approved
   registration forms.

   From now through March 31, 1993, non-DDN Internet registration
   requests will be handled as follows:

      The current DDN NIC registration templates may be filled out and
      submitted to either hostmaster@internic.net or
      hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil through March 31.  The new InterNIC
      templates will be accepted effective April 1, 1993, but not until
      that time.

     Telephone support: 1-800-365-DNIC or
                        1-703-802-4535 (Washington DC metro area)
Williamson                                                      [Page 1]
RFC 1400
Transition of Registration Services         March 1993
Mail questions and registration templates to:

               Government Systems Inc.
               Attn: Network Information Center
               14200 Park Meadow Dr.
               Suite 200
               Chantilly, VA 2200

   Effective April 1, 1993, non-DDN Internet requests will be handled as
   described below.

      New registration requests should be sent to autoreg@internic.net
      using the new template.  Old templates sent to
      autoreg@internic.net will be returned with the parsing error
      messages and the new form attached. Old templates mailed to
      hostmaster@interic.net will be accepted through June 30, 1993.

      After that date, templates in the old format will be returned to
      the sender with the new template attached.

     Telephone support: 1-800-444-4345 or 619-455-4600
                        1-703-742-4777 (Registration service only)
                                       (Washington DC metro area)

     Mail questions and registration templates to:

               Network Solutions, Inc.
               Attn: InterNIC Registration Service
               505 Huntmar Park Drive
               Herndon, VA 22070

   In an effort to keep those who are likely to submit a high volume of
   registration requests informed during the transition period,
   information regarding Internet registration issues will be
   distributed via the mail list rs-info@internic.net.  Send
   subscription requests to:

                     rs-info-request@internic.net.

   Information on the location of the new autoreg templates and how to
   retrieve them will be sent to those who have subscribed to this list.
   Comments are solicited.  The new registration templates have been
   modified to facilitate automatic processing and to remove all DDN-
   specific references.

   WHOIS services will be available at both the DDN NIC and InterNIC
   sites:
Williamson                                                      [Page 2]
RFC 1400
Transition of Registration Services         March 1993
whois.nic.ddn.mil (192.112.36.5)
     whois.internic.net (198.41.0.5)

   Effective April 1, 1993, only DDN information will be available from
   whois.nic.ddn.mil.  The WHOIS service available from
   whois.internic.net will contain all information on IP addresses,
   domains, and ASNs.  The WHOIS service available from the
   whois.internic.net will contain individual user records only for
   those who serve as a Point of Contact for an active node.  Those who
   are interested in establishing a whois service for information on
   individual users (e.g., for Internet hosts or campus networks) are
   encouraged to participate in one of the many distributed WHOIS-like
   information projects.

   Root zone files will be available at both sites through March 31,
   1993.  After that time, the root zone file will be available only
   from ftp.rs.internic.net.

   After the transition, the host.txt file will be available only from
   nic.ddn.mil and hosts.txt will include ONLY MILNET HOSTS.  On April
   1, 1993, a new root DNS server will be placed in service.  It will be
   available at ns.internic.net ( 198.41.0.4 ).

   The T1 service currently available to the DDN NIC will be
   disconnected by June 1, 1993.  This will leave only 56K access to the
   DDN NIC site. Excessive traffic to this site after that date will
   cause congestion. Therefore, it is important that all Internet
   registration data be directed to the new InterNIC site.  The InterNIC
   registration services facility will be connected to SuraNET via T1
   around March 10, 1993.

   Automated Internet registration services will be available from the
   InterNIC registration service host.  This new automated system will
   allow more accurate and timely processing of registration requests.
   The basic functions/features of the new automated registration
   process (autoreg) are outlined below:

   * Requestor sends a completed new template to
     autoreg@internic.net.

   * The mailserver/parser on the InterNIC registration host parses
     the template and makes a quick check of all verifiable
     information (such as Domain name conflicts).  The server
     then sends an E-mail verification or rejection with error message
     back to the requestor.

   * After receiving the verification form for review, the requestor
     should ensure that the information was interpreted correctly by the
Williamson                                                      [Page 3]
RFC 1400
Transition of Registration Services         March 1993
parser.  If the information is correct, the requestor returns the
     verify form to verify@internic.net.  If the information is not
     correct, the requestor should make the necessary corrections before
     returning the form.  If a rejection was received the requesstor
     must make the necessary adjustments and resend the registration
     request to autoreg@internic.net for processing.

   * On receipt of a corrected verification form from the original
     requestor, the data will be rechecked and a new verification form
     will be sent.  Once a good verification has been received by
     Registration Services, the request will be released for final
     processing by the InterNIC registration staff.

     NOTE: If the requestor does not return the verification form to the
     InterNIC within seven days after it is mailed, the original
     registration request will expire, and it must be resubmitted.

   Information on the status of all registration requests will be
   available to users via two methods.  The first method employs the
   "finger" utility.  The finger utility is executed specifying the
   "trouble ticket" (tt) number returned with the registration request
   verification/ confirmation message.

   Example:     finger tt-930303.1034@rs.internic.net

   Users will also be able to obtain status information by connecting to
   rs.internic.net via telnet and executing the "status <ticket number>"
   command.  Status information will appear as follows.

   [BEGIN SCRIPT]__________________________________________________________

   > finger tt-930303.1034@rs.internic.net
   [rs.internic.net]
   Retrieving information on Ticket 930303.1034.   Please wait...

   Ticket Number: 930303.1034           Ticket Status:   pending
   Ticket Type: reg/domain              Ticket Source:   email
   Ticket Scope:                        Site/Line:

   Ticket Owner: autoreg                Problem Fixer:  duanes

   Ticket Opened: 03/03/93  14:47

   Problem Description:
                    register internic.net
Williamson                                                      [Page 4]
RFC 1400
Transition of Registration Services         March 1993
Problem Solution:

   For more information, please contact the InterNIC Registration
   Center at hostmaster@internic.net or (703) 742-4777.  Thanks!

   [END SCRIPT]____________________________________________________________

   Other services will also be available via telnet to rs.internic.net.
   The interface is similar to the telnet service currently offered by
   the DDN-NIC. However, the commands used on the InterNIC system are
   slightly different. The services that will be available via telnet
   are:  WHOIS, Gopher, wais, finger, and status.

   Below is a short scripted session on the new InterNIC Registration
   host.

   [BEGIN SCRIPT]__________________________________________________________

   % telnet rs.internic.net
   Trying 198.41.0.5 ...
   Connected to rs.internic.net.
   Escape character is '^]'.

   SunOS UNIX (rs) (ttyp4)

   ************************************************************************
   * -- InterNIC Network Registration Center  --
   *
   * For gopher, type:                  GOPHER <return>
   * For wais, type:                    WAIS <return>
   * For the *original* whois type:     WHOIS <return>
   * For the X.500 whois DUA, type:     X500WHOIS <return>
   *
   * For user assistance call (800) 444-4345 or (703) 742-4777
   * Please report system problems to ACTION@rs.internic.net
   ************************************************************************

   Cmdinter Ver 1.3 Wed Mar 10 11:23:05 1993 EST
   InterNIC > ?
   Command, one of the following
    DATE          FINGER        HELP          KERMIT        LOGIN
    LOGOUT        STATUS        WHOIS         GOPHER        WAIS
    X500WHOIS
   InterNIC > date
   Wed Mar 10 11:23:09 EST 1993
Williamson                                                      [Page 5]
RFC 1400
Transition of Registration Services         March 1993
InterNIC > whois
   Connecting to the rs Database . . . . . .
   Connected to the rs Database
   InterNIC WHOIS Version: 1.0 Wed, 10 Mar 93 11:23:19

   Whois: !internic-dom
   Network Solutions, Inc. (INTERNIC-DOM)
      505 Huntmar Park Drive
      Herndon, VA 22070

      Domain Name: INTERNIC.NET

      Administrative Contact:
         Zalubski, John  (JZ7)  zalubskj@INTERNIC.NET
         (703) 802-8462
      Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
         Kosters, Mark A.  (MAK21)  markk@INTERNIC.NET
         (703) 802-8484

      Record last updated on 10-Feb-93.

      Domain servers in listed order:

      REG.INTERNIC.NET             192.153.247.80
      NOC.CERF.NET                 192.153.156.22

   Whois: quit
   InterNIC > quit

   Wed Mar 10 11:24:54 1993 EST
   Connection closed by foreign host.
   %

   [END SCRIPT]____________________________________________________________
Williamson                                                      [Page 6]
RFC 1400
Transition of Registration Services         March 1993
Summary of InterNIC registration services information:

rs.internic.net   198.41.0.5
ns.internic.net   198.41.0.4

General telephone support:  1-800-444-4365
Registration support:       703-742-4777

Mail address:
Network Solutions Inc.
ATTN: InterNIC Registration Services
505
Huntmar Park Dr.
Herndon, VA 22070

rs-info@internic.net                  Registration information mail list
rs-info-request@internic.net

hostmaster@internic.net               Registration questions and Manual
                                       registration
autoreg@internic.net                  Automatic registration mailbox

finger tt-XXXXXX.XXXX@rs.internic.net To check status of registration
                                       request

Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Author's Address

   Scott Williamson
   Network Solutions, Inc.
   505 Huntmar Park Drive
   Herndon, VA 22070

   Phone: (703) 742-4820
   EMail: scottw@internic.net

Williamson                                                      [Page 7]
RFC
1400
: Transition and Modernization of the Internet Registration Service
Informational