/************************************************************************
 *   IRC - Internet Relay Chat, doc/NETWORKING
 *   Copyright (C) 1990, Helen Rose
 *
 *   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 *   the Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option)
 *   any later version.
 *
 *   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *   GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 *   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 *   along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 *   Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
 */

                                               Author: Helen Rose
                                                       hrose@cs.bu.edu
                                               Date: 10 Oct 1990

*** Please read this before doing any connecting or writing to ask for
connections. The information contained in this section is crucial to the
way IRC is run.

In August of 1990, IRC suffered a critical split in viewpoints of key
people in the IRC heirarchy. The result was IRC split into two networks,
EFnet (Eris Free network) and Anet (Anarchy network). This split continues
today. There is some debate over whether IRC will ever reunite, however,
neither side is willing to bend from their standpoint. 

     Below is a paragraph from each side, listing their viewpoints on why their
respective net is "better" than the other. Please read these, and decide
for yourself which is the better network. Currently, there are about 95
servers on EFnet (and the same number of users) and 15 servers on Anet (and
about half the number of users). 

Anet
====
joshua@coombs.anu.edu.au
(DCLXVI == Josh Geller)
   Arguments in favor of joining Anet include stabler links, ease of 
connecting (just connect your server to eris.berkeley.edu; if you decide 
later you wish to be on EFnet you merely have to add whatever patches are
required and get a link from the appropriate EFnet server), no likelihood
of regulation of numbers of servers (there has been some talk of limiting
the number of servers on EFnet).

EFnet
*===*
ckd@cs.bu.edu, hrose@cs.bu.edu
(ckd = Christopher Davis, Trillian = Helen Rose)
   Arguments in favor of joining EFnet are virtually limitless. From a
redundant backbone plan (which assures everyone of getting a close,
fast link and tries to keep traffic off of long haul networks) to the
fact that the obvious security hole that exists with open-server servers
does not exist. (Anyone running an open server allows any user with
telnet access to crash the server's machine without too much work.)


---real networking document---
Throughout this document every effort will be made to apply to *BOTH* ANet
and EFnet. If this is not possible, EFnet will be referred to, considering
it is the side where the majority is located.

Anet has one network coordinator:richardt@legato.com. Mail to him for all
correspondence. At this time, no backbone layouts have been published for
Anet.

EFnet is coordinated in several areas:

ckd@cs.bu.edu and hrose@cs.bu.edu coordinate the US routing. They also
coordinate all incoming connections to the US. If you are in the United
States and need a link, please mail to "operlist-request@cs.bu.edu"
supplying the information listed below.

savela@tel.vtt.fi, irc@tolsun.oulu.fi, and d88-skl@nada.kth.se coordinate
the NORDUnet connections. (msa, WiZ, and meLazy on irc, respectively)

muts@fysak.fys.ruu.nl coordinates Dutch servers.

stumpf@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.de and Gruner@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.de
coordinate German servers. (Maex and Armin/Gonzo)

phil@cnam.cnam.fr coordinates the one French IRC server, and any others
that might want be started.

avalon@coombs.anu.oz.au coordinates the Australian servers. 

bowles@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp coordinates the Japanese servers. 

==how to get an IRC connection==

(1) If you are in the United States and on Anet, mail to
    richardt@legato.com.

(2) If you are in the United States and on EFnet:
      a) find out if your system has /etc/ping (sometimes /usr/etc/ping)
      and ping the following hosts-

      server/machine name        IP Address     Geographical Location
      bucsd.bu.edu               128.197.10.2   Boston, MA
      irc.mit.edu                18.70.0.224    Cambridge, MA
      poe.acc.virginia.edu       128.143.20.20  Charlottesville, VA
      sindri.cs.cornell.edu      128.84.254.96  Ithaca, NY
      polaris.ctr.columbia.edu   128.59.64.79   New York City, NY
      fairhope.andrew.cmu.edu    128.2.11.213   Pittsburgh, PA
      *.umich.edu                141.212.66.36  Ann Arbor, MI
      h.ece.uiuc.edu             128.174.115.18 Urbana-Champaign, IL
      minnie.cc.utexas.edu       128.83.135.13  Austin, TX
      ucsu.colorado.edu          128.138.129.83 Boulder, CO
      badger.ugcs.caltech.edu    131.215.128.29 Pasadena, CA
      *.spies.com                130.143.3.3    Cupertino, CA
      *.washington.edu           128.95.152.35  Seattle, WA

(yes, this seems like alot, but the backbone structure is quite complex and
redundant so when we have a network break, servers can pick up other
servers within moments)

     b) a simple ping hostname (or ping IP address) will suffice. Ping the
     five geographically closest machines. Let the ping run for 100 packets.
     This allows the network coordinators to best evaluate your position 
     on the network and to give you a connection that is fastest. 
     Note: when using the SunOS version of ping, use ping -s machinename;
           "regular" SunOS ping is useless.

    c) mail these results to operlist-request@cs.bu.edu requesting a link. 

  (3) If you are in Europe and are requesting a link, mail to the
      appropriate contact listed above, and they will instruct you on how to
      secure a link for your server.

These are the results of the typical /etc/ping command:

(note that since bucsd.bu.edu runs SunOS, I used ping -s...)

bucsd% /usr/etc/ping -s betwixt.cs.caltech.edu
PING betwixt.cs.caltech.edu: 56 data bytes
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=0. time=169. ms
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=1. time=190. ms
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=2. time=200. ms
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=3. time=170. ms
[...]
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=18. time=180. ms
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=19. time=220. ms
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=20. time=170. ms
64 bytes from betwixt.cs.caltech.edu (131.215.128.4): icmp_seq=21. time=200. ms
^^            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^            ^^       ^^^^^^^
Size of packet   hostname             IP address      packet number  trip time

----betwixt.cs.caltech.edu PING Statistics----
22 packets transmitted, 22 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip (ms)  min/avg/max = 160/179/220

When you send pings to operlist-request, please only send the results
(the above three lines)--we *don't* need each packet's time.

Guidelines:

Avg Time        Connection is
========        =============
20-50 ms        Optimal
50-80 ms        Excellent
80-120 ms       Very Good
120-180 ms      Average
180-240 ms      Acceptable
240-300 ms      Below Average
300-400 ms      Bad
400+    ms      Find a better link, if possible

** *** WHERE TO FIND HELP!!! ***
** 
** If you have any other questions about connecting to an irc server, please
** mail to operlist-request@cs.bu.edu.  If you have problems mailing there,
** try mailing hrose@cs.bu.edu or ckd@cs.bu.edu. 
** 
** *** WHERE TO FIND HELP!!! ***

If you are in need of further help, you may find it by using your IRC
client, entering IRC, and sending a /wallops. Be sure to read the help
information on /wallops before doing so. Please use /wallops for IRC
questions or help only, and not for questions like "have you seen nicky
I need to talk to him". /wallops with care, or you will be annoying
every operator on IRC.

Appendix
========

Open client servers
Until such a time that your server becomes connected, you should use your
irc client and connect to open client servers.  Some of these servers are-

irc.mit.edu
bucsd.bu.edu
fairhope.andrew.cmu.edu
hermes.tcad.ee.ufl.edu
mingin.engin.umich.edu
minnie.cc.utexas.edu
badger.ugcs.caltech.edu
ucsu.colorado.edu
dharma.cpac.washington.edu

fysak.fys.ruu.nl
nic.funet.fi
coombs.anu.edu.au

Start up your irc client, and then type /help for help.
Happy IRC'ing!


