ARPANET Access

[Michael Meissner]

In article <7062 at oberon.USC.EDU> blarson at skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) writes:
| In article <305 at mergvax.UUCP> rkxyv at mergvax.UUCP (Robert Kedoin) writes:
| >I don't think this is the "right" newsgrooup to post this in
| 
| Probably comp.protocols.tcp-ip, but they won't need my answer...
| 
| >How does one go about getting on the ARPAnet ?
| 
| Before worrying about hardware and software needs, talk to your U.S.
| Dept. of Defence contacts about if they would be willing to sponsor
| you.  (It is the DEFENCE advanced research program agency network.)

Actually there are other ways to join the Internet (of which what used to
be the ARPAnet is just two pieces).  I don't know all the details, of what
connects to what, but here goes....

The Internet is a collection of networks which speak TCP/IP and are
connected.  Each network has it's own rules and such about access
policies, who pays, etc.  The four that I can think of off the top of
my head are the civilian side of what used to be ARPAnet (researchNet
is the name I've typically heard for it);  the military side (now called
MILnet), and CSNET X.25 net (not the mailnet, which is tied together
with phonelines, like UUCP); and NFSNet (various supercomputer sites and
affiliated universities).  Data General, for instance connects through
the CSNET X.25 interface, and when the links are up, I can FTP files
from any site on the internet.  I believe we had to pay a $30,000
initial fee, plus some monthly costs for a class B network number (the
network number determines how many hosts you can hook in your network to
the internet, a class A can have around 2 ** 24 hosts, class B can have
around 2 ** 16, and a class C can have 254).

| >The reason for wanting ARPA access is that I keep seeing many programs
| >that are available via "anonymous FTP".  I DO NOT know how to get
| >these files from my site which is only on USENET (if in fact it is
| >possible.)
| 
| Ah, there is a much easier and cheaper solution if this is all you want.
| From what I understand, uunet has something set up so they will uucp
| files ftped from arpanet to their customers on request.  Contact 
| uunet!uunet and ask if they do this and how you sign up.

uunet will probably be cheaper if all you want to get is some files,
though you might inquire with the CSNET folks about their costs.  Try
contacting somebody as sh.cs.net (postmaster maybe?).
-- 
Michael Meissner, Data General.		Uucp: ...!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!meissner
					Arpa/Csnet:  meissner at dg-rtp.DG.COM