THE AmIUG BULLETIN local electronic publication of the Armenian Internet Users Group July 23, 1996 * * * * * * * * * Vol. 1, No. 3 hostmaster@nic.am ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE AmIUG BULLETIN is a bimonthly electronic newsletter of the Armenian Internet Users Group composed of timely information about Internet-related events and services in Armenia, Armenian Internet Users Group updates, summaries of Internet news from Armenia, the international press, and announcements of relevant conferences, seminars, and workshops. THE AmIUG BULLETIN is now on the Web due to constant efforts of Edgar Der-Danieliantz. You can visit the AMNIC www server, www.nic.am to find the AmIUG Bulletin there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN THIS ISSUE... AmIUG NEWS * AMNIC www server * NAS and AmIUG Council members meeting with Mr. R. Rohozinski, Program Manager of the United Nation Internet Project NETWORK NEWS * USIS IRC * AIC * IMFOCOM * YERPHI * AUA * SEUA * ARMENTEL * NK (NAGORNO-KARABAKH) * WORLDBANK POLICY * AmIUG RULES INET'96 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AmIUG NEWS * AMNIC www server Due to hospitality of the AIC they host now the new WWW server of the AMNIC, www.nic.am, run by Edgar Der-Danieliantz. AMNIC, being a part of AmIUG, is responsible for servicing new domains, maintaining the AM TLD zone file and consulting new users. www.nic.am is now the official WWW server of the AMNIC and AmIUG. Edgar Der-Danieliantz is currently in process of installing whois server It'll be first whois server in Armenia connected to the worldwide whois network operated by InterNIC/RIPE/APNIC. He is going to use his own whois software (ewhoisd) with gateways to some other search engines and services. (The material was kindly presented by E. Der-Danieliantz from AIC) * NAS and AmIUG Council members meeting with Mr. R. Rohozinski, Program Manager of the United Nation Internet Project On the 13.06.96 the Presidium of the NAS hosted two meetings of the NAS high ranked authorities and the AmIUG council members with the UNDP representative Mr. Rafal Rohozinski, Program Manager of the United Nation Internet Project. The meetings were headed by the NAS vice-president, Yuri Shoukurian. R. Mkrtchian, A. Tonoyan from YerPhI, V. Sahakian from NAS, Tigran Nazarian, C. Karapetian from UNDP, D. Rostomian from Infocom, A. Alexanian, G. Saghian, E. Der-Danieliantz and S. Stepanian from Arminco, I. Mkrtoumian from AmIUG were also present. The UNDP had already installed its satellite connection providing a dedicated 64K connection to Europanet, the largest European Internet provider. UNDP propose to connect armenian scientific and research community as well as public organisations, GOs and NGOs to the Internet free of charge. The UNDP is presently proposing to implement of a major assistance programme aimed at enhancing the National Information Infrastructure in Armenia. UNDP is trying to help Armenia in: - strengthening the development of the National Information Infrastructure through assistance in consolidating existing networking projects into a co-ordinated national effort. - enhancing open access for all sectors of society to the global and national resources of the UN systems and the emerging Global Information Infrastructure. UNDP is proposing to create a national Internet exchange (Yerevan Internet Exchange, YIX) which will integrate existing (and planned) network efforts into a single national infrastructure. The creation of a YIX, a non-profit centre (financed and technically back-stopped by the United Nation Internet providers and managed by a consortium of commercial and non-commercial armenian Internet providers) is expected to provide a national co-ordination centre for the further development of Armenian networks. The exchange will create the capacity to establish a kind of national backbone connecting all armenian ISPs and provide the basis for organising a rationalised routing strategy for all existing armenian networks. Membership in the YIX will be open to all organisations with an interest in developing networks. UNDP will provide space, and cover the initial set-up, technical backstopping of the YIX for an initial period of three years. UNDP will provide cost-free routing across its satellite link to qualified agencies via the YIX. As a result of discussions the following understanding was reached: 1. All parties agreed to co-operate and co-ordinate to the fullest extent possible in the creation of the national Internet exchange (YIX). 2. All parties agree that the YIX will be hosted and maintained for a period of three years by the United Nations Development Programme. 3. All parties agree that a consortium of commercial and non-commercial armenian Internet providers shall be formally tasked with the co-ordination of all activities pertaining to the operation of the YIX. 4. All parties agreed to work together in the resolution of all questions pertaining to the operationalization and operation of the YIX. (This paragraph material is based on the papers kindly presented by Mr. R. Rohozinski with the latest additions of the results of discussions) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NETWORK NEWS * USIS IRC On April 12, 1996 the new USIS Information Resource Center (USIS IRC) was opened at the USA Embassy. It is connected to the on-line Internet by a dedicated 19.2 Kbps line through Arminco. The connection was done by Arminco specialists. The e-mail address of the Center is usinfo@arminco.com. The IRC is the research and reference service of the United States Information Service in Yerevan. It provides reference and referal services for Armenians on virtually all aspects of United States policy: especially Armenian-US relations, domestic politics, the environment, the economy and trade. Its resources include Internet and CD_ROM databases: ProQuest and PDQ and reference books. Internet provides the IRC with an increasing number of U.S. resources. IRC emphasizes information rather than books. The collection of over 1,000 volumes is non-circulating; most of the materials and reference sources which are regularly updated. The full-text of 400 periodicals and 1,000 abstracts available on CD-ROM (ProQuest). Two U.S. trained librarians provide quick reference assistance and research, utilising print and digital resources. IRC accepts queries by telephone, e-mail, fax or in person. Researchers, government offices, Members of Parliament and their staffs, journalists, university faculties and libraries are regular users. The Center is open for the general public every weekday from 13.00-17.00, except American and Armenian holidays. At the opening ceremony a lot of VIPs were present, among them, ambassadors of US, Germany, Greece, Russia, China, Great Britain and France (consul), President of the AUA Mr. M. Agbabian, Director of the AUA Mr. M. Kouchakdjian, representatives of TV and press, journalists, rectors of universities and institutes. Among invited persons there were Director of Arminco and AmIUG Mr. Alexanian, Arminco's Information Service Manager Mr. S. Stepanian and President of AmIUG Mr. Mkrtoumian. Two charming and highly professional hostesses, Ashkhen and Gayane, made all necessary explanations about the IRC facilities. (The paragraph material was kindly presented by Ashkhen Petrosian from USIS IRC) * AIC Arminco will provide Association of Armenian Information Professionals (AAIP) with WWW/FTP/Mailing list service free of charge. URL is www.aaip.org. (It's under construction yet). ARMINCO is starting a new WWW service: the Armenian White Pages, an International E-mail Directory. This will be a FREE public directory of E-mail addresses of all Armenians and Armenian organisations throughout the world. This service was created by Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America(AESA) in 1994. They published what was then a comprehensive Armenian International E-mail Directory, presented in brochure form. As the number of users of the Internet have grown, that directory has served its function and a new one is required. Arminco is working to create a FREE WWW-based online directory, the Armenian White pages, to be organised like other Internet white page directories, only this one will be by Armenians for Armenians. Complete with ads and classifieds, this FREE service will allow Armenians and Armenian supporters to contact each other in a quick efficient way, facilitated by a powerful search engine. To help to collect data for the directory, please add yourself or your organisation to the Armenian International E-mail Directory by contacting Arminco at their Web site located at http://www.arminco.com/aied.html or http://206.106.252.226/aied.html If you have problems in connecting to the WWW (at first the server might be overloaded with the number of responses) or if you don't have access to the WWW, please fill out the attached form and e-mail it to aied@www.arminco.com Please send any questions/suggestions to sam@arminco.com (The paragraph material was kindly presented by S. Stepanian from Arminco) * INFOCOM Infocom had opened the following third level domains in amilink.net and connected the corresponding organisations to the on-line Internet: - Trade Point of Armenia - tpa.amilink.net with 16 IP addresses, 4-wire dedicated 19.2 Kbps line. - Ardshinbank - ashb.amilink.net with 16 IP addresses, 4-wire dedicated 9.6 Kbps line. - Yerevan Stock Exchange - yse.amilink.net with 16 IP addresses, 4-wire dedicated 57.6 Kbps line and ys2.amilink.net with 16 IP addresses, 4-wire dedicated 19.2 Kbps line. - HPLA Ltd (software company) - hpl.amilink.net with one IP address, 4-wire dedicated 19.2 Kbps line. (The paragraph material was kindly presented by E. Gabrielian from Infocom) * YERPHI YERPHI had installed ARLAN radiobridges working on 2.4 GHz frequency connecting Traumatology institute to their satellite antenna. The omnidirectional antenna installed on the Traumatology institute will be the central part of the future wireless subnet connecting numerous institutes and organisations to the YerPhI satellite antenna. * AUA AUA changed its policy in subdomain addressing and transferred the whole LAN to a single internet address by setting NAT on its router. Aiming to enhance its connectivity the AUA set a new 9.6 Kbps dedicated 4-wire line to Infocom in addition to the existing line to Arminco. The AUA had transferred its name and mail server to a PC AT486/100 with FreeBSD. Sun Sparc 5 is now used as an application server on the AUA LAN. * SEUA SEUA received class C IP addresses, 194.67.117.0/24 for their second level domain seua.am. SEUA is connected by Cylink radiomodems to the NAS and then through the existing radiomodem link NAS-YerPhI to the YerPhI satellite antenna. * ARMENTEL ARMENTEL is planning to connect the central part of the Yerevan to its fiber-optic ring and provide Internet access for the connected organisations until the end of 1996. ARMENTEL is also planning to provide a fiber-optic ring as an internet backbone for Yerevan internet users. * NK (NAGORNO-KARABAKH) Due to the efforts of young karabakh internauts the new WWW server was opened in the NK domain, www.nk.am. * WORLDBANK The Worldbank received class C IP addresses, 207.96.189.0/24, for its domain worldbank.org.am. Worldbank will be connected to Infocom by a 64 Kbps radiomodem line and a 4-wire physical leased line as a backup. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INET'96 Two armenian specialist, A. Gulkhasian (YerPhI) and A. Hakobian (AUA) had taken part in INET'96 workshop and INET'96 conference. G. Saghian (Arminco) had taken part in INET'96. A. Gulkhasian participation was sponsored by ISOC. A. Hakobian and G. Saghian participation was sponsored by UNDP-Armenia. The AmIUG expresses its great gratitude to Mr. J-M. L'Orge, the Director of the UNDP Office in Armenia for helping armenian internet users to be on the frontier of the modern communication technology.