[ netinfo/what-registration-services-are.txt] [ 3/93 ] INTERNIC REGISTRATION SERVICES The InterNIC Registration Services is located at Network Solutions, Inc., Herndon, VA, and is funded by a cooperative agreement from the National Science to provide assistance in registering networks, domains, asn's, and other entities to the Internet community via telephone, electronic mail, and U.S. postal mail. Registration Services will work closely with domain administrators, network coordinators, internet service providers, and other various users to register Internet domains, asn's, networks. Databases and information servers of interest to network users are provided, including the WHOIS registry of domains, networks, asn's and their associated poc's. Gopher and Wais interfaces are also available for retrieving information and accessing whois. Online documents maintained at registration services include registration related rfc's, registration templates, and various netinfo files. Many of the online files are available through our automatic mail service, MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET. Registration Services will assign asn's, register domains assigns IP network numbers and Autonomous System Numbers, and produce the domain zone files for the community. Registration Services will also provide assistance to user's concerning policy and the status of their existing registration request. I. USER ASSISTANCE SERVICE Toll-free telephone service is available Monday through Friday, 7 am to 7 pm, Eastern Standard time. Users who require assistance concerning policy or registration status questions are encouraged to make use of these services: Phone Number: 1-703-742-4777 II. NIC ONLINE MAILBOXES To contact Registration Services via electronic mail 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, use these mailboxes: HOSTMASTER@INTERNIC.NET Host, domain, network changes and updates ACTION@INTERNIC.NET Computer Operations MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET Automatic mail service III. InterNIC Registration Services Postal Address Send U.S. postal mail correspondence to: Network Solutions AttN: InterNIC Registration Services 505 Huntmar Park Drive Herndon, VA 22070 IV. REGISTRATION COMPUTER SERVICES The host computer is a SUN SparcServer, running the SUN operating system, and its hostname is RS.INTERNIC.NET. Its network address is 198.41.0.5. The network address of Registration Services domain root server is 198.41.0.4. Online services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. V. DOCUMENTS DISTRIBUTED BY REGISTRATION SERVICES Registration Services distributes the following documents which are available online. Title Online Filename master.index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .policy/master.index NOTE: In the filenames, the "nn" or the "nnn" should be replaced by the number of the newsletter, bulletin or RFC. To retrieve a document whose filename is listed above, open an FTP connection to the FTP.RS.INTERNIC.NET host, login as user ANONYMOUS and provide the password GUEST. Retrieve the desired file. VI. ONLINE INFORMATION SERVERS a. WHOIS WHOIS is a program that provides an electronic "white pages" of Internet network entities such as domains, network numbers, asn's, and their associated poc's. Accessing WHOIS From a host, use the TELNET program to connect to host RS.INTERNIC.NET. When greeted by the Registration host, type "WHOIS" and press RETURN. c. QUERY CAPABILITIES Registration Services has implemented Gopher and Wais interfaces to query for information. Using the Gopher Interface, one can obtain information on registration, information and directory services for the InterNIC team. Using gopher one can also access archive data, netinfo files, and policy related documents. The Wais interface enables a user to access the whois database and search for data using a specific search string. Accessing Gopher and Wais From a host, use the TELNET program to connect to host RS.INTERNIC.NET. Type "Gopher" or "Wais" and press RETURN. e. ROOT DOMAIN NAME SERVER Registation Services is responsible for generating and installing the DNS files into the NS.INTERNIC.NET root server and the seven alternate root servers three times a weekly (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). VII. ONLINE FILES Registration Services maintains a number of online files which are available to network subscribers via the file transfer program (FTP) or Kermit. These files contain information about protocols, site personnel, hosts, and other subjects relevant to network users. See the file netinfo/00netinfo-index.txt for an index to the files in the "netinfo" directory. See also the file master.index in the policy directory which lists the rfc's available. a. How to Retrieve files Using FTP To retrieve any of the public files via your local FTP program, connect to the FTP.RS.INTERNIC.NET host, and log in as ANONYMOUS with password GUEST. FTP program use varies slightly from host to host, so please consult your Host Administrator for instructions, if needed. b. How to Use the Automated Mail Service MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET is an automated service provided by InterNIC Registration Services. It allows access to documents and information via ordinary electronic mail. This is especially useful for users who do not have access to the NIC via a direct Internet link, such as users of BITNET, CSNET and UUCP sites. To use the mail service, send a mail message to MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET. In the SUBJECT field, request the type of service you wish followed by any needed arguments. The message body is normally ignored. Large files will be broken into smaller separate messages. The information you request will be sent back to you as soon as possible. The following services are currently available: INDEX Returns the master list of available index files. NETINFO xxx xxx is a file name or the word INDEX. TEMPLATES xxx xxx is the template required. POLICY xxx xxx is a file name or the word INDEX. SEND xxx xxx is a fully specified file name. WHOIS xxx Returns information about xxx from the WHOIS service. Use "WHOIS HELP" for information on how to use WHOIS. Example SUBJECT lines: HELP POLICY INDEX TEMPLATES DOMAIN-TEMPLATE.TXT SEND templates/domain-template.txt WHOIS KOSTERS, MARK Send comments or suggestions to ACTION@INTERNIC.NET. IX. HOST, DOMAIN, NETWORK NUMBER, IN-ADDR, AND ASN REGISTRATION Registration is responsible for the registration of domains, IP networks, and autonomous systems numbers (ASNs) used by various organizations connected to the Internet. Domains are registered via the domain template found in templates/domain-template.txt. New domain information is installed into the seven DNS root servers three times a week. Information regarding the root servers is kept in netinfo/root-servers.txt. Additionally, a listing of the domains registered with Registration Services can be found in netinfo/domain-info.txt. A listing of the netaddresses of the domain servers for individual top-level domains can be found in netinfo/domains.txt. Network number assignments are made when a network POC completes the template in templates/internet-number-template.txt and returns the template to Hostmaster. A complete listing of government sponsored networks is found in netinfo/networks.txt. To provide address to hostname reverse resolution, IN-ADDR domains are registered within the domain root servers via an IN-ADDR template sent to the HOSTMASTER mailbox. This template can be found in templates/in-addr-template.txt. Registration Services assign autonomous system numbers (ASNs) when the template found in netinfo/asn-template.txt is sent to HOSTMASTER@RS.INTERNIC.NET. A complete listing of assigned ASNs is found in netinfo/asn.txt. From the domain, network number, and ASN templates, POC information is extracted and individuals that are not already registered are given records in the WHOIS database.