[ netinfo/what-the-nic-does.txt ] [16-Sep-97] NOTE: For this and other NIC information, contact our WWW site at NIC.MIL. THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NETWORK INFORMATION CENTER (DoD NIC) The Department of Defense Network Information Center (DoD NIC) is located at Boeing Corporation at Tysons Corner, Vienna, VA and is funded by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to provide general user services to DISN users via telephone, electronic mail, a WWW page, and the U.S. Postal Service. The DoD NIC works closely with the DISN Host Administrators, Node Site Coordinators, Domain Administrators, Network Administrators, and other Service administrative authorities to assist new and existing users in obtaining pertinent network information. Databases and information servers of interest to network users are provided, including the WHOIS registry of network users, hosts, networks, domains, and communications server authorities. The DoD NIC is the source for various reference documents,and maintains a RFC (Request for Comments) collection. Many of the on-line files are available through the DoD NIC's automatic mail service, SERVICE@NIC.MIL. The DoD NIC registers DoD hosts and domains, assigns IP network numbers and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) for DoD entities, and provides domain name system server files to the NIPRNET community. The DoD NIC also registers NIPRNET users and administrators and issues Communications Server (CS) cards when authorized. I. USER ASSISTANCE SERVICE Help desk services are available Monday through Friday, 7 am to 7 pm, Eastern Time zone, except Federal Government holidays. Users who experience problems with using the network in general, and with terminal-to-CS use in particular, are encouraged to make use of this service. encouraged to make use of this service. Toll-free: 1-800-365-3642 International: 1-703-821-6266 II. DoD NIC ONLINE MAILBOXES NOTE: The following can also be contacted through the WWW page at NIC.MIL. To contact the DoD NIC via electronic mail 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, use these mailboxes: NIC@NIC.MIL General user assistance, document requests, comments on DoD NIC services. REGISTRAR@NIC.MIL User registration and WHOIS updates HOSTMASTER@NIC.MIL Host, domain, network changes and updates ACTION@NIC.MIL DoD NIC computer operations SERVICE@NIC.MIL Automatic mail service SCC@NIC.MIL General security-related information and support III. DoD NIC U.S. POSTAL ADDRESS Send U.S. postal mail correspondence to: DoD Network Information Center 7990 Boeing Court MS CV-50 Vienna, VA 22183-7000 IV. DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE AT THE DoD NIC NOTE: These documents are also avilable through our WWW page at NIC.MIL. The DoD NIC provides the following documents online. We cannot provide hard copy versions. An annotated list of DoD NIC publications is found in the file netinfo/nic-pubs.txt on NIC.MIL. Title Online Filename DISN Comm Server Users Instructions. . . . . . . . netinfo/cs-users.txt DISN Newsletters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ddn-news/newsYYNN.txt DISN Management Bulletins. . . . . . . . . . . . . ddn-news/bul-YYNN.txt DISN Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ddn-news/ann-YYNN.txt DISN Security Bulletins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . scc/sec-YYNN.txt FYIs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .fyi/fyiNN.txt FYI Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fyi/fyi-index.txt RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .rfc/rfcNNN.txt RFC Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rfc/rfc-index.txt BCPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . bcp/ncpNN.txt BCP Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . bcp/bcp-index.txt STDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . std/stdNN.txt STD Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . std/std-index.txt NOTE: In the filenames, the "nn" or the "nnn" should be replaced by the number of the newsletter, bulletin or RFC. For various Bulletins, "YYNN" refers to the year the bulletin was issued followed by the number of the bulletin for that year, e.g. "9001". There are a few older bulletins without a year designation. These were issued sequentially. Obsolete bulletins have been deleted. To retrieve a document whose filename is listed above, open an FTP connection to the NIC.MIL host, login as user ANONYMOUS and provide the password GUEST. Retrieve the desired file. VI. ONLINE INFORMATION SERVERS NOTE: This information is also available through our WWW page at NIC.MIL. a. WHOIS WHOIS is a DoD NIC program that provides an electronic "white pages" of network users. It lists the name, network mailbox, postal address, and telephone number, for all registered users. Host, CS, domain, and network information may be obtained from WHOIS as well. Accessing WHOIS From a CS, provide your User ID and Access Code when prompted.. Then type NIC.MIL at the prompt. When greeted by the DoD NIC host, type "WHOIS" and press RETURN. From a DISN host, use the TELNET program to connect to host NIC.MIL. When greeted by the DoD NIC host, type "WHOIS" and press RETURN. WHOIS may also be run from a local host. The WHOIS user program for several operating systems is available from the DODNIC. The "C" language version is in the NETPROG directory, whois.c. b. NIC/QUERY This service has been discontinued due to lack of use, and the availability of better tools to obtain the information. c. ROOT DOMAIN NAME SERVER The Internet NIC has responsibility for generating and installing the DNS files into the G.NET-SERVERS.NET root server. These are updated five times a week. VII. ONLINE FILES NOTE: These files are also available through our WWW page at NIC.MIL. The DoD NIC maintains a number of online files which are available to network subscribers via the file transfer program (FTP) or Kermit. These files contain information about site personnel, hosts, and other subjects relevant to network users. See the file netinfo/00netinfo-index.txt for an index to the files in the "netinfo" directory. See also the Comm Server Users Guide, or contact the DoD NIC User Assistance service for more information. Other publicly accessible directories include RFC, IEN, SCC, and DDN-NEWS. a. How to Retrieve DoD NIC files Using FTP To retrieve any of the DoD NIC's public files via your local FTP program, connect to the NIC.MIL host, and log in as ANONYMOUS with password GUEST. FTP program use varies slightly from host to host, so please consult your Host Administrator for instructions, if needed. b. How to Retrieve DoD NIC Files Using Kermit NOTE: KERMIT has been discontinued due to lack of use and the availability of the more efficient FTP. c. How to Use the DoD NIC's Automated Mail Service SERVICE@NIC.MIL is an automated service provided by the DoD Network Information Center. It allows access to DoD NIC documents and information via ordinary electronic mail. This is especially useful for users who do not have access to the DoD NIC. To use the mail service, send a mail message to SERVICE@NIC.MIL. In the SUBJECT field, request the type of service you wish followed by any needed arguments. The message body is normally ignored. Large files will be broken into smaller separate messages. The information you request will be sent back to you immediately. The following services are currently available: HELP This message; a list of current services. HOST xxx Returns information about host xxx. WHOIS xxx can also be used to get more details about a host. INDEX Returns the master list of available index files. NETINFO xxx xxx is a file name or the word INDEX. RFC nnn nnn is the RFC number or the word INDEX. RFC nnn.PS to retrieve an available Postscript RFC. Check RFC INDEX for form of RFC. FYI nnn nnn is the FYI number or the word INDEX. FYI nnn.PS to retrieve postscript versions of FYI files. SEND xxx xxx is a fully specified file name. WHOIS xxx Returns information about xxx from the WHOIS service. Use "WHOIS HELP" for information on how to use WHOIS. Example SUBJECT lines: HELP RFC 822 RFC INDEX RFC 1119.PS FYI 1 TEMPLATES DOMAIN-TEMPLATE.TXT SEND RFC:ASSIGNED-NUMBERS.TXT HOST NIC.MIL WHOIS PLZAK,R Send comments or suggestions to NIC@NIC.MIL. Send questions and bug reports to ACTION@NIC.MIL. VIII. USER REGISTRATION NOTE: This information is also available through our WWW page at NIC.MIL Host Administrators have overall responsibility for registering their users. When new users acquire accounts on DISN hosts, their Host Administrator must complete a DoD NIC generated template to register them in the DoD NIC database. End users who require DISN CS dial-up access to reach their hosts must have CS Access cards that are provided by the DoD NIC. Approval for distributing the card is sent to the DoD NIC from the user's Local Access Authority. Until the user is permanently registered, there may be temporary "Organizational" cards available from the Organizational Card Custodian. IX. HOST, DOMAIN, NETWORK NUMBER, IN-ADDR, AND ASN REGISTRATION NOTE: All templates are available through our WWW page at NIC.MIL. The DoD NIC is responsible for the registration of hosts, domains, IP networks, and autonomous systems numbers (ASNs) used by various DoD services and agencies. To include a new host in the DoD NIC WHOIS database, the template found in templates/disn-node-template.txt needs to be completed and returned to HOSTMASTER@NIC.MIL. All hosts acting as domain or IN-ADDR server, routers, gateways, or email servers must be registered. Five times each week, information is generated and installed into the DoD NIC WHOIS database. Military domains are registered via the domain template found in templates/domain-template.txt. New domain information is installed into the DNS root servers five times per week. Information regarding the root servers is kept in netinfo/root-servers.txt. Military network number assignments are made when a network POC completes the template in templates/IP-address-template.txt and submits the template to Hostmaster@nic.mil. To provide address to hostname reverse resolution, military IN-ADDR domains are registered within the domain root servers via an IN-ADDR template sent to the HOSTMASTER mailbox. This template can be found in templates/in-addr-template.txt. The DoD NIC assigns military autonomous system numbers (ASNs) when the template found in templates/asn-template.txt is sent to HOSTMASTER@NIC.MIL. A complete listing of assigned ASNs is found in netinfo/asn.txt. From the domain, network number, and ASN templates, POC information is extracted and individuals that are not already registered are given records in the WHOIS database. NOTE: Templates submitted by U. S. postal mail cannot be processed. X. SECURITY COORDINATION CENTER NOTE: The SCC can also be contacted through the WWW page at NIC.MIL. The DoD NIC is the site of the DISN Security Coordination Center (SCC). The SCC acts in conjunction with the DISN Network Security Officer to coordinate actions regarding security incidents and network vulnerabilities. The SCC relays security-related information to the Network Security Officer and works with him in handling network security problems. In addition, the SCC issues DISN Security Bulletins to network users. The SCC can be contacted in these ways: E-mail: SCC@NIC.MIL Phone: 1-800-365-3642 1-703-821-6266 Postal mail: DoD Network Information Center 7990 Boeing Court MS CV-50 Vienna, VA 22183-7000 Phone hours are from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time.