mat6013@DMZRZU71.BITNET.UUCP (11/26/87)
The following message is to all of you worrying about the connection between
BITNET and ARPAnet. It just found its way to me from the "BITNET Board of
Trustees <BOARD@BITNIC>" via the "Node administrators/contacts of German EARN
nodes <DEARNADM@DEARN>".
Matthias Kapffer
<MAT6013@DMZRZU71.BITNET>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The City University of New York, Princeton University, Cornell University, and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology have each committed to provide gateway
service for electronic mail between the BITNET network and the Internet.
Current gateway services provided by the University of Wisconsin (WISCVM) will
end on December 15, 1987. Prior to that date, at least two of the above
announced gateways will be in operation in parallel with WISCVM - there will
be no interruption in gateway services.
Prior to a regionalization plan and significant coordination with the
Internet, the most expeditious approach is to name the first few gateways the
same, namely, INTERBIT. That would mean that any gateway-destined mail that
landed at any INTERBIT node would be appropriately handled. This change will
be reflected in the December DOMAIN NAMES file which is used for MAILER
generation; users need not do anything - mail will go automatically to the
closest gateway. This is a transition measure necessitated by the time frame,
by the complexity of more desirable solutions, and by the need to coordinate
more with the Internet.
Plans are to regionalize gateway service between the networks in order to
balance traffic flow and increase reliability. Several other institutions are
seriously considering functioning as gateways. An analysis of topologically
best locations for such gateways will be conducted under the auspices of the
BITNET Board of Trustees' Technical Committee; and the BITNET Network
Information Center will coordinate regionalization plans and associated
software modifications.
(Please note reference to Internet, rather than ARPANet, and Internet's
inclusion of ARPANet, NSFNet, NYSERNET and the other regional networks.)
BITNET Board of Trustees