[2001] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Dialog - Confusion
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Wolff)
Fri Jan 17 12:16:50 1992
To: cook@tmn.com (Gordon Cook)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 12:09:37 EST
From: Stephen Wolff <steve@ncri.cise.nsf.gov>
There have been for a long time - and will continue to be for a long time -
lots of inaccessible hosts (and even whole networks) nominally connected to
the Internet; dialog.com is the first to make more than a few network purists
incensed.
Dialog COULD have connected up to any regional network for the purpose of
serving R&E users. Then anyone on any of the nets interconected by the
NSFNET Backbone could have reached it for R&E purposes (but not of course
for running their consulting business nor any other non-R&E use).
And of course if the regional to which Dialog connected allowed non-R&E
traffic then users ON THAT REGIONAL could have reached it for non-R&E
purposes too. Users on any OTHER regional permitting non-R&E traffic could
get to Dialog for non-R&E purposes providing there were a Dialog's-regional-
to-user's-regional interconnect allowing non-R&E traffic.
ANS CO+RE provides that interconnect, given NSF's permission to pass non-R&E
traffic across the NSFNET Backbone-to-regional gateways on a non-interfering
basis.
Anybody else wanting to provide regional-to-regional interconnect for non-R&E
traffic between two regionals who allow such traffic can do so, obviously.
(Who's to say no?) They may install their own gateways, or use the NSFNET
Backbone gateways under the same conditions as ANS CO+RE.
"But," you say, "if users confine their use of Dialog to R&E, none of the
above is necessary: Dialog connects to a regional and becomes accesible to
the entire comunity for R&E purposes." Very true. I guess that Dialog
didn't do it that way NOT because they were after the non-R&E market, but
because they were afraid that if just one alleged R&E user were discovered
to be using Dialog for non-R&E purposes, not only would that user get in
trouble, but also the well-known mailed fist of NSF would descend on Dialog,
and that's a prospect scary enough to send any corporate lawyer scuttling
for cover.
-s
