HARPER@finuh.bitnet ("ROBERT HARPER, FINLAND") (08/23/89)
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No 9
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INDEPENDANT NEWSLETTER PRODUCED AT HELSINKI UNIVERSITY, FINLAND
<< EDITED BY ROBERT HARPER >>
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For some time I have been wondering how a computer gets a NODE name
on EARN. For example I send a lot of messages to LISTSERV at
DB0FUB11 and I get $HASP messages from FRMOP22. I suppose that
these letters and numbers really *DO* mean something... so it came
as quite a revelation when I discovered an explanation behind these
cryptic codes.
You may ask yourself is this kind of information valuable... well
once you know the secrets then you will realize that you can do a
SEND/FILE/VMSDUMP to CZHETH5A but not to DB0FUB11. You will know in
which countries the machines are situated, the institutions that
have the machines, and the operating system of the machine.
For example who would have guessed that DB0FUB11 would yeild up
the information that the computer is in Berlin Germany, at the Free
University of Berlin and that its operating system is VM.
The naming conventions adopted by EARN are only used by some of
the countries in Europe. So after reading this article you should
be able to look at the NODE and perhaps come to some conclusions
about it.
The debate started with an innocent enough message from Peter
Flynn in Ireland who asked the following question.
> Can anyone explain why so many EARN nodenames end in ...11 ?
> Someone suggested they were all PDP-11's, ho ho :-)
> ...Peter
And the definitive answer came from Frank Elsner in Germany who
answered thus:
----------------------original message-----------------------
NODE NAMING CONVENTION FOR EARN NODES IN
Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland
To ensure that node-names are unique in the network and to include
meaningful information in the node-names they should contain the
following:
Country - Location - Institute - Software - System Nbr.
An example for such a node-name DDAGSI31 is shown below:
+---+------+---------+---+---+
| D | D A | G S I | 3 | 1 |
+---+------+---------+---+---+
--- ------ --------- --- ---
| | | | |
| | | | +---> System nbr. 1 - 9 and A - Z (optional)
| | | +-------> Software: MVS JES3 (1 digit)
| | +--------------> Institute's initials: GSI (max 4 digits
| +----------------------> Location: DA = Darmstadt (2 digits)
+----------------------------> Country: D = Deutschland (1 digit)
As country identifier the letters from the international car
registration plates should be used (where possible):
D = Germany (West) E = Spain I = Italy C = Switzerland (CH)
H = Netherlands (NL) (Holland)
Countries other than those shown here have decided to use a 2 letter
code for their country. A list of these codes is given at the end of
this article. These countries also *DO NOT* follow exactly the
naming conventions described here.
To identify the location of the node we should use 2 letters.
Again the car registration numbers can be used in some countries.
Single letter signs are expanded with a 0 as fill character to
cover 2 positions in the nodename:
Germany: DA = Darmstadt, HH = Hamburg, B0 = Berlin etc.
Italy: PI = Pisa, MI = Milano, R0 = Roma etc.
Switzerland: GE = Geneve, BE = Bern etc.
Other countries with no meaningful city code numbers may select
significant location ids. e.g. PA = Paris, LY = Lyon etc.
Institute initials may span 3 characters, 4 characters if system
number is not used. e.g FUB = Free University Berlin
EMBL = European Molecular Biology Laboratory
The identification of the software system running at that node is
given by the following numbers:
0 = all software not registered under 1 - 9
1 = VM/370 or VM/SP
2 = MVS JES2
3 = MVS JES3
4 = BS3000 (Siemens/Fujitsu)
5 = VMS (VAX/DEC)
6 = UNIX (VAX/DEC)
7 = MULTICS (H/BULL)
8 = BS2000 NJE (Siemens)
9 =
The system nbr. is optional and is used to differentiate between
several nodes at an installation. So putting it all together the
NODE DHDEMBL5 can be interpreted as a EARN node in Germany (D) in
the city of Heidelberg (HD) at the European Molecular Biology
Laboratory (EMBL) which is running under the VMS (5) operating
system.
In some installations there may be reasons to not follow these
naming conventions (e.g. integration of existing nets with
accustomed names or, important nodes requiring names easy to
remember). Of course every installation in EARN is free to select
its node-name as desired but the name must be unique in the
network.
Here is a list of countries, country codes, filenames used for
country related files, and nodename letters if applicable.
Car-plate ISO-code
Country Code (2) (3) Filenames Nodenames
------------- --------- --- --- -------- --------
Argentina RA AR ARG BITNET ........
Australia AUS AU AUS
Austria A AT AUT ATEARN A.......
Belgium B BE BEL BEEARN B.......
Canada CDN CA CAN NETNORTH ........
Denmark DK DK DNK DKEARN DK......
Egypt ET EG EGY
Finland SF FI FIN FIEARN FIN.....
France F FR FRA FREARN FR......
Germany D DE DEU DEEARN D.......
Great Britain GB GB GBR GBEARN UK......
Greece GR GR GRC GREARN GR......
Iceland IS IS ISL ISEARN IS......
Ireland IRL IE IRL IEEARN IR......
Israel IL IL ISR ILEARN ........
Italy I IT ITA ITEARN I.......
Ivory Coast RCI CI CIV CIEARN CI......
Japan J JP JPN BITNET JPN.....
Liechtenstein FL LI LIE
Luxemburg L LU LUX LUEARN LUX.....
Mexico MEX MX MEX BITNET ........
Netherlands NL NL NLD NLEARN H.......
Norway N NO NOR NOEARN NO......
Portugal P PT PRT PTEARN PT......
Singapore SGP SG SGP BITNET ........
Spain E ES ESP ESEARN E.......
Sweden S SE SWE SEEARN SE......
Switzerland CH CH CHE CHEARN C.......
Turkey TR TR TUR TREARN TR......
USA USA US USA BITNET ........
Yugoslavia YU YU YUG YUEARN YU......
-------------------message end-----------------------
Rob "FIN (Finland) UH (University of Helsinki)" Harper