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From: rich@GATEWAY.MITRE.ORG
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: (none)
Message-ID: <9005251124.AA00811@mercury.mitre.org>
Date: 25 May 90 11:24:25 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 38

Subject: re: Dial up access to Internet facilities
Date: Thu, 24 May 90 15:10:10 -0400
From: Craig Partridge <craig@NNSC.NSF.NET>
Status: R

Craig Partridge writes...
> I've always felt that the best solution to the dial-up access problem
> was to make it easy for people to hook up their PC to your local Ethernet,
> get a temporary IP address (via some address assignment protocol) and
> voila, they are connected.  One could do similar things with a 
> 900 voice line [dial 1-900-ARPANET, negotiate for a temporary IP address,
> you're off].

> In other words, the key problem is making it easy for someone with a
> PC to get a local IP address and do something.

> Craig

While at Unisys, myself and others developed and implemented a system that 
did exactly what Craig describes... 

A PC user could dial into a gateway that would give the PC a temporary IP address.
A protocol was also developed that would allow the PC user to update a
modified Domain Name Server with its temporary IP address so that other
hosts could initiate connections to the PC. 

An FTP user protocol, Telnet user protocol, and SMTP server protocol 
implementations were written to run on the PC.

The usefulness is that a user with a portable PC can dial into a 
system and his email would automatically be sent to the PC at the temporary
location.

More information on this system can be found in the conference record of
MILCOM '89, under "PHASE, A Portable Host Access System Environment".


Rich Verjinski           rich@gateway.mitre.org