Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!shelby!portia.stanford.edu!baroque!jim From: jim@baroque.Stanford.EDU (James Helman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi Subject: Re: internet for the rest of the universe Message-ID: Date: 8 Dec 90 21:02:42 GMT References: <9012081548.AA15760@karron.med.nyu.edu> Sender: news@portia.Stanford.EDU Organization: Stanford University Lines: 33 In-Reply-To: Dan Karron@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU's message of 8 Dec 90 15:48:29 GMT Right vision (universal access), wrong method (vendor sponsored link to a government funded WAN). Regulations prohibit the commercial use of the Internet. Regulations change, but currently, SGI is not in a position to offer Internet access to its customers. They're not in the network business anyway. But companies such as PSI (profit) and UUNET (non-profit) are. Both offer Internet access (subject to the usage guidelines). If you've got the money, they've got the connection. And the Internet (or rather it's successor, the National Research and Education Network) will eventually be commercialized (although how to best do it is non-obvious, see RFC1192). Being phased out when commerical services can meet the country's networking needs is actually part of NREN's mandate. We're just using the prototype (Internet) of the prototype (NREN) of a commericial network. "The NREN should be the prototype of a new national information infrastructure which could be available to every home, office and factory. .... The corresponding ease of inter-computer communication will then provide the benefits associated with the NREN to the entire nation, improving the productivity of all information- handling activities. To achieve this end, the deployment of the Stage 3 NREN will include a specific, structured process resulting in transition of the network from a government operation a commercial service." -- Office of Science and Technology Policy, The Federal High Performance Computing Program, September 8, 1989, pp. 32, 35. Jim Helman Department of Applied Physics Durand 012 Stanford University FAX: (415) 725-3377 (jim@KAOS.stanford.edu) Work: (415) 723-9127