Press Release Fron down under.

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

PRESS RELEASE

July 2, 1997 - Sydney

AhNet, a Sydney based Technology group, announced today that the first
of
12 new Root Servers for Australia has been successfully deployed.

Currently the AURSC with AhNet offers a new Domain Name called .AH


"A few ISP's have been trialing the service for a few months now. With
the
data and cost being considered the pilot was a great success and more
ISP's
are now being invited to join the AURSC both as users to expand the
Domains
they can offer and as Administration members," announced Mr. Todd.

"We trialed this with an overseas company Iperdome Inc, who already
offer
Domain Names under the .PER for personal use. It's all very exciting for
ISP's, but it shoudl be remember that too many TLD's (top level domains)
could cause more confusion that solve problems," claims Mr. Todd

A Root Server is the highest level in the Domain Name heirachy that can
be
accessed.  The Root Servers tell other Domain Servers where to find the
Names and IP addresses that are being requested by users of the
Internet.

When you access a Web Site you use a Domain Name like http://www.ah.net.
The Root server controls where the information can be found, like a
table
of contents.  You have a Chapter heading, then a Topic Heading and
perhaps
a sub paragraph heading.  DNS is similar.

To find WWW.AH.NET the Domain Name Serever will look for the owner of
.NET,
and ask for the address of AH.  It will then visit AH and ask for the
address of WWW, eventually, but quickly connecting you to the host.

Currently a very complex ownership/management of the world's Internet
Root
Servers exists. Much debate has been undertaken by Mr. Todd to help
ensure
that these resources remain open to the public.

Companies, Governments and Corporate organisations are trying to take
hold
of the potentially lucrative assett and to offer Domain Names for sale.

Mr. Todd states that if Top Level Domain names were made available to
anyone and everyone the value of those names would greatly be reduced.
"It's like real estate is to the land.  Top Level Domain names such as
.AU
and .COM are so valuable because they are controlled by restrictive
boodies
that wish to monopoloise the market." says Mr. Todd.

The biggest fear is stability and accessability. Mr. Todd warns that "if
Root Server Confederations around the world don't cooperate and the
current
Governing bodies fail to work with these organisations, names will clash
and there is a higher chance of incorrect data being distributed."

With the creation and deployment of the new Root Servers, Mr. Todd hopes
many ISP's will use these as their first point of lookup.

Mr. Todd has expressed although his company is the founder of this new
service, he intends to hand the management and technical issues to a
steering committee made up of Internet Service Providers and Public
members.  A new Company is being established for this purpose and
details
will be released at the end of July.

AhNet currenlty processes applications and hosting for existing domains
such as .COM.AU and .COM yet receives over 100 requests a month for
registration in new Domains. Mr. Todd feels that throwing open the doors
in
such a vunerable market is not a good idea for stability reasons.

The Steering Committee will decide what new Domain Names should be
created
and who should be entitled to manage the databases if they are not
shared.

Mr. Todd also hinted that a shared access database that is self
replicating
using the Internet will be launched in August this year. A new
development
that allows Registries to open world wide using the existing and new
domain
names without any single entity monopolising the services.

"It's also possible, with this new product, for ISP's to sell name space
from their own servers. We will greatly be encouraging this offering,
especailly in the new Deregulated Australian market," says Mr. Todd.

Further information is available from the following Web Sites:

Network Administration                  http://www.ah.net
Australian Root Server Confederation    http://www.ah.net/aursc.htm
Mr. Adam Todd                                   http://adamtodd.ah.net


Regards,
-- 
Jeffrey A. Williams
DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java Development Eng.
Information Eng. Group. IEG. INC. 
Phone :913-294-2375 (v-office)
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com