[ih] Users vs Hosts on ARPANET

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Craig Partridge <craig at aland.bbn.com>

    > I thought the standard for getting into the ARPANET Directory was
    > that you had a NIC handle and were in the NIC database.

The '82 Directory lists NIC Idents, the '84 one doesn't (refers to people by
full names and email addresses). Dunno if that means NIC Idents been fully
discarded by the later one, or what.

    > this meant you fell into one of the following categories: (a) the
    > official contact for an IP address; (b) the official contact for a
    > host; (c) had a TAC account; or (d) were a contact for some IANA
    > number (protocol, port, EGP AS)...

I don't think so. The '82 book says:

  'All individuals with accounts on ARPANET machines, who are capable
  of passing traffic across the ARPANET, are requested by DCA to be
  registered in the NIC Identification data base.'

(p. 7) and the '92 book says something almost identical (since by then
here were MILNET and MINET as well; p. 7):

  'All individuals with accounts on DDN hosts, who are capable
  of passing traffic across the network, are requested by DCA to be
  registered in the NIC user registration data base.'

So clearly these directories are _intended_ to be mostly complete. And,
like I said, when I checked, most of the people I recall from this period
in my research group at MIT were listed, including undergrads who were
working with us.

No doubt some sites were lax about registering people, and there were also
lots of 'randoms' (as they were called) using TIP dial-up lines to get on
(most of whom showed up at the MIT ITS machines :-). So they are not
absolutely accurate, and the number of people listed therein is certainly
only a floor, but I suspect they still are _relatively_ complete.

(You, for instance, are not in the '82 one, but are in the '84 one. :-) 

	Noel