Hello. I am currently working on a term paper for school
about the forces behind the development of Usenet News and "the
Net." I would like to understand what the original connection
(c1980/81?) was between the then new Usenet News and the more
established ARPAnet.
It looks from this tape that there were already gateways and/or
informal connections between the two nets, even from very close to the
start; my guess is that as soon as Berkeley got on the net there were
links set up for the fa.* ("From Arpanet") digests to go in.
My question consists of the following:
1) What did the inital gateway consist of? Was it a
bidirectional flow of information or unidirection flow over this
connection?
The usenet and the arpanet overlapped at a few spots; several places
had direct connections to both nets. Some of the overlaps were one
way only. There's some good flamage in the A News tape about the
difficulties that ensue when you have one-way mail links.
Some of the Usenet news links were not accompanied by parallel e-mail
links, which means that some sets of people could only communicate by
news and not by direct e-mails.
I propose to write a paper concerning the developement of
"The Net." I am interested in exploring the forces behind its
development and the fundemental change it represents over
previous communications media. I will consult with people who
have been involved with the Usenet News from its beginnings, and
the various networks that comprise the Computer Network around
the world. I wish to come to some understanding of where the Net
has come from, so as to be helpful in figuring out where it is
going to.
Seriously - get the A News tape, unpack it, and read through it.
You'll also want to dig out the 'msggroup' archives (search archie,
they should be on wuarchive and simtel20) which cover ARPANET topics
from about 1976 to 1983 or so, and try to triangulate the 'truth'
between the two there.
Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, Msen Inc. emv@Msen.com
Msen Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI 48103 +1 313 998 GLOB
This page last updated on: Jul 1 09:16