[news.misc] netnews general information query

heneghan@ihdev.UUCP (J. T. Heneghan) (01/20/87)

I would like to do a research paper on the net. I am looking
for information on a myriad of related topics:
a.) How does one get on the net?
b.) How are nodes added?
c.) How are backbones formed?
d.) How do we gateway?
e.) History of the net
f.) Global netnews map
g.) topologies
h.) ISO consideration
i.) throughput performance data
j.) anything else?

I apologize if this information has recently been solicited as I
haven't subscribed to "news.*" groups before. I'd appreciate
pointers,documents, or email.

					 Thanks in advance,
					 Joe Heneghan
					 ihnp4!ihdev!heneghan
					 312-979-6143
					 ATT&T Bell Labs IH 
					 Rm. 4a-158
					 Naperville Ill, 60566

mark@cogent.UUCP (Captain Neptune) (01/22/87)

In article <1113@ihdev.UUCP> heneghan@ihdev.UUCP (J. T. Heneghan) writes:
>I would like to do a research paper on the net. I am looking
>for information on a myriad of related topics:
>a.) How does one get on the net?
For a person on the outside trying to get in, the answer is:

                WITH GREAT DIFICULTY

The problem is that when you don't have contacts, you have no way to ask
what to do.  Generally, it is hard to find a person who knows unless you
were already in the midst of people who DO know (which is not as large
a group as we might think).  I know my grammer is poor here, but I am
trying to describe a Catch-22 situation.  For the person on the outside
looking in, it appears like an "exclusive members-only" club that doesn't
want any outsiders getting in.  This is certainly untrue, but that is how
it can APPEAR.

I poked around for leads for about a year.  I eventually got a listing of
the California netmap.  I then got a mail link to ONE site that we were
working with at the time, and they were in Toronto!  With a few clues,
I deduced that they were hooked to ihnp4 and I managed to send mail thru
Toronto to ihnp4 and on to various sites in California asking for
connectivity.  I finally got a response from someone who was willing to
give me a mail feed if I polled.  I was quite excited to get this far!
That person helped me to locate others who improved my connectivity and
got me going with a news feed.

The people who helped me deserve mention and public thanks from myself.
They are:

     Bridgett Dobbins at dual
     David St. Pierre at ptsfa

Their generosity finally brought to fruition a year of my efforts that
entailed much blind searching and frustration.
-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Mark Steven Jeghers         ECHOMPGULP - process has eaten it          |
| cryptography, terrorist, DES, drugs, cipher, secret, decode, NSA, CIA, NRO |
|                                                                            |
|     {ihnp4,cbosgd,lll-lcc,lll-crg}|{dual,ptsfa}!cogent!mark                |
|                                                                            |
| Cogent Software Solutions can not be held responsible for anything said    |
| by the above person since they have no control over him in the first place |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+