5. ESSENTIAL NIC FUNCTIONS

Network Information Centers exist to provide services that make using the network easier and more attractive to users.

To help meet this goal, four essential NIC functions have been identified as those that every Internet NIC should perform. These are the basic functions that define the minimum level of Internet information service. Each Internet NIC should:

• Provide information resources.
• Support end-users through direct contact.
• Collect and maintain NIC referral information.
• Support the NIC infrastructure.

The level of each service and the exact mechanisms for providing these services depend on the needs of the particular network user community. Funding, staffing, and implementation issues related to these functions are left up to individual NIC organizations.

Presently, only the first two functions, providing information resources and directly supporting end-users, are routinely performed by Internet NICs. The variety of ways in which these services are provided is described more fully in the section on, "Examples of Present NIC Services".

The last two functions, collecting information about other NICs and supporting the NIC infrastructure, are new roles that have evolved as the Internet community and the number of NICs have grown.

Each of these four essential functions is discussed in some depth in this section.

5.1. Provide Information Resources

Information resources refers to both online and hard-copy resources, such as online files, marketing information, and newsletters. NICs help users gain access to relevant information in several ways.

• Obtain information online from other sites and store it at the local NIC where users may access it.
• Refer users to information stored at other locations around the Internet. This option requires that each NIC maintain up-to-date information regarding such Internet resources.
• Create information, such as newsletters, marketing information, tutorial files or documents, and make it available to users. In this case, the "creating NIC" is solely responsible for the content and accuracy of the information provided.

In all of the cases above, users need a way to verify the authenticity and currentness of the information. Accordingly, each NIC should provide the following information for everything it makes available to its users and the Internet community: 1) a time stamp, 2) a revision number, and 3) the name of the NIC that produced the document. The NIC should also maintain contact information regarding the source of a file, but does not necessarily have to include such a contact in the online file.

5.2. Support End-Users

A NIC serves as the principle source of network information for its end users. NICs field a variety of user inquiries, such as requests for how to get connected to the Internet, how to locate and access a particular application on the network, how to determine an e-mail address, and how to solve operational problems. Each NIC must take a best effort approach to responding to these inquiries and take responsibility for a user inquiry until it is resolved in some way. Resolution may be answering the question, referring the user to the appropriate information source, or coordinating with a NOC to resolve a user connectivity problem.

To facilitate this role of information provider, the following delivery mechanisms are used:

• Telephone "hotline" support. All NICs need to be available to answer phone inquiries during the business day.
• Electronic mail. An electronic mail address acts as an electronic help desk. For consistency, the electronic mail address should be of the form NIC@domain (e.g., NIC@DDN.MIL). Such a common addressing convention will move toward standardization of these "electronic help desks" and will increase the chance that users will know where to ask for help. In addition, a user inquiry to a NIC e-mail address should either produce a human response or an up-to-date machine response that performs a triage function by advising the user where to go for particular categories of problems. For example, a message to NIC@NSF.NET could return a message alerting the user to the NNSC@NNSC.NSF.NET and the NSFNET-INFO@MERIT.EDU mailboxes, both of which provide information for NSFNET.
• Electronic information transfer. NICs should provide information in electronic form, and make it available across the Internet through mechanisms such as anonymous file transfer, electronic mail, and remote databases.

5.3. Collect and Maintain NIC Referral Information

With the recent dramatic increase in the number of networks, users, and applications accessible via the Internet, it is impossible for any one NIC to maintain comprehensive, up-to-date information of all the services and information available. Because such information is distributed among many NICs, it is essential for each NIC to be aware of other NICs and their areas of expertise. Such shared information among NICs ensures that Internet users will be referred promptly to the correct information resource.

In an effort to gather data about NICs and their resources, information will be solicited from each NIC and placed in a database called "nic-profiles". This database will be available to all NICs. Such shared information among NICs ensures that Internet users will be referred promptly to the correct information resource. For information regarding joining or using the nic-profiles database, send a message to nic-forum-request@merit.edu.

5.4. Support the NIC Infrastructure

It is essential that each NIC take an active part in supporting the NIC/Internet infrastructure. Two means of providing such support are suggested here.

• Attend the IETF User Services Working Group (USWG). NICs are encouraged to participate in the USWG, an ongoing working group of the IETF, which is chartered to identify, discuss, and recommend solutions to user service issues. The group meets regularly at the IETF meetings. (Information about IETF meeting schedules, etc., is available for anonymous FTP from nnsc.nsf.net. The directory is ietf.) The USWG has spawned a variety of working groups dealing with specific user service topics. To join the USWG mailing list send an e-mail request to uswg-request@nnsc.nsf.net.
• Participate in nic-forum. An electronic mailing list, "nic-forum", will provide NIC personnel with a means of soliciting information from other NICs, offering solutions to common problems, and posting information of general interest. A NIC can register in the nic-forum, as well as provide information for the nic-profiles database, by sending a message to nic-forum-request@nsf.net.