TH: ThaiSarn/Pubnet
Indonesia Publications/Task Force
*/
/* ---------- "Network" ---------- */
For news update from Bangkok during the past week, although I cannot
speak for 'feeders', I believe their position is like this. Feeders are
volunteers who think information can be (perhaps "should" be) shared.
Feeders in their very own capacity do what they think is right for the
situation. Their actions do not necessary reflect interest of employer
of each individual feeder.
The following message is reposted with consent of the original author.
Two documents mentioned in last paragraph of the article are now available
for anonymous ftp from snake.mcs.kent.edu:/pub/Thai/docs.
------
From: tr...@tla.dec.com
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: Re: Thai Network update?
Message-ID: <1992Apr23...@tla.dec.com>
Date: 23 Apr 92 04:34:36 +0700
References: <kva4br...@caldera.usc.edu>
Distribution: world
Organization: Digital Equipment (Thailand), Ltd.
Lines: 59
There are two active efforts in building network infrastructure in Thailand.
One is ThaiSarn, the other is pubnet.
ThaiSarn is to be formally announced to the public tomorrow. It stands for
Social/Scienctific Acedemic and Research Network or something like that. The
project was formerly called the NECTEC e-mail network and is, of course,
sponsored by the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center
(NECTEC). It currently has 3 hubs running since February: one at NECTEC, one
at Thammasat University, and one in my office (NO, you cannot reach ThaiSarn
through Digital's internal network). The number of participating node is
expected to "explode" after the announcement.
Hub nodes are still running in testing stage. Backbone protocol will be
switched from UUCP to IP-based once leased lines are in place. International
link is up now although the traffic is intentionally limited initially. I
used to send an unofficial election result from a ThaiSarn hub. Remember?
An international leased line has been planned. It will be full IP suite.
ThaiSarn is/will be also running Australian technology MHSnet software. I
will leave AARnet connection to Ajarn Nittida or Khun Robert Elz to explain.
Thailand owes AARnet so much because they inspire the needs for networking
infrastructure in Thailand.
ThaiSarn will be expanded to provincial areas as soon as hosts in those
areas are ready.
The other network is called the Public Access Network, pubnet. Pubnet is an
attempt to link the local research community to "ordinary" people. A pilot
gateway running UNIX will provide message conversion to enable the research
community to share their expertise with the user community and convey the
local needs back directly to researchers.
Pubnet will provide bidirectional gateway functionality for UNIX-based
message to the user community via local FidoNet BBS network. There are some
20 active FidoNet BBSes in Thailand, each has 100-1500 users (most users
have an account on many BBS). It is anticipated that around 1500-2500
PC-oriented end-users will be able to communicate with UNIX users (who are
currently locked in their ivory towers).
IMHO, both ThaiSarn and pubnet share many similarities since both networks
were, to a certain degree, heavily induced by the pubnet proposal, at least
in terms of connection/membership policy, communication protocol, services
and backbone design. Both might not be state of the art networks. The
ultimate goal for both network is not to be the world's greatest network,
but to ensure the infrastructure is in place (so further development and
idea sharing can be made in an easy manner) and to develop more personnel
for the IT industry. Expertise/idea sharing is the key to everything if we
still want to build a better Thailand.
The major difference between the two networks is that ThaiSarn is properly
funded and managed professionally while pubnet is purely a voluntary
actility of a small group of technical people who just couldn't wait anymore.
Since ThaiSarn is taking care of the research community, pubnet is now
repositioned to focus on getting the end-user community into the network.
A hub node of ThaiSarn is in fact a hub of pubnet at the same time.
If any anon-FTP site would like to carry the "Public Access Network
Proposal" and ThaiSarn's Guide, please let me know.