Internet membership: a query...

[Bert Still]

	Greetings!

	I have been asked to determine what I need to do (and/or who I need
to talk to) in order to get information about the Internet. Specifically,
how does a site become a member? Should I contact the ARPAnet managers?
(We already have several CSNet sites that are connected via phone links, and
would like to pursue the idea of "upgrading" to become a site capable of
using ftp, etc. on the Internet...)
	For some strange reason, that is not yet fully clear to me, I have
been asked to find out what the necessary steps are in order to put a
node on the Internet from which we would branch out to our subnets. Having
a very limited understanding of how the Internet works, I turn to the vast
knowledge of the Net People. I am not new to networks: I have been managing
a DECnet (with SNA links, terminal servers, remote line printers, and a
couple of VAXen) system for a year or so, and recently installed CMU-TCP/IP
on our VMS VAXen so as to link with computer sciences (who have graciously
been providing me with access to their BSD4.3 machine for quite awhile),
thus allowing FTP between BSD4.3 and VMS4.4. Well, I now have users that
want Internet access, and administrators who want Internet access. So, I
would greatly appreciate any information that might move me closer to
escaping this sandwich. Information on software and machine considerations
are solicited, as well as information on who to contact about Inetnet
membership.
	Another query along the same lines, as long as I'm eating bandwidth:
is a class C network internet address sufficient (ie. we were going to request
a Class C address for the University of South Carolina system of 9 campuses
and subnet from there, can we do that if we become an Internet member, or do
we need a Class A/B address) ??
	I was not sure which newsgroups (if any) would be appropriate for
this query, so I took the liberty of posting to the ones most likely read by
Systems Managers and Administrators. If anyone takes offense, pleas know that
I had no malevolent intent. Many thanks for any and all help.

						Bert
						still at cs.scarolina.edu
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Bert Still
Assistant Systems Manager
Mathematics and Statistics Computation Center
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
CSNet: still at cs.scarolina.edu
BITNET: T410119 at UNIVSCVM (IBM mainframe-net... warning EBCDIC char set!)