Finding addresses on Bitnet

Several people have asked lately how to find addresses for colleagues
throughout Bitnet.  Generally the easiest way is to phone the person and
ask, but if that is a problem, you can send mail to the site's
postmaster.  The following query/response from a local bulletin board
offers a good suggestion.   (Unfortunately Internet people will not be
able to use this.  Life's rough).  Also I have a good set of directories
and can help you get started.

    Subject: obtaining BITNET addresses
    Date: 20 Sep 88
    Sender: jrg<-a t->lindy< . >Stanford< . >EDU

    >Item: su.etc 13706,  18 Sep 88,  12 lines.    (14 items left)
    >From: gjc<-a t->Portia< . >Stanford< . >EDU (George J. Chen)
    >Subject: Help wanted:  email address at Brown University
    >
    >I'm trying to get in touch with my brother via email.
    >He is at Brown University on an IBM3090 (he's a frosh).
    >Can anyone let me know what the email path is from Stanford?
    >
    >Thanks.
    >
    >George

    Two people who may be able to help you obtain your brother's email
    address are Peter DiCamillo (CSMAINT@BROWNVM) and Michael Pear
    (MRP@BROWNVM), who are the BITNET POSTMASTER and INFOREP at Brown.
    The general convention is that the postmaster deals with problems of
    people trying to get in from the outside while the inforep helps
    local people get to the outside but this is only a rough guideline.
    At many places the INFOREP handles any sort of question connected
    with using BITNET.  Peter was able to track down my cousin at Brown
    a few years back so I'd start with him.

    BTW, I obtained the above information by sending the command FIND
    SITEDESC BROWN to DATABASE@BITNIC.  I can do that interactively from
    Forsythe which is on BITNET.

    [...  or the command can be entered as the only line in a regular
    mail message and then ] mail it to DATABASE%BITNIC@FORSYTHE.   What
    I got back were two records from a SPIRES data base, one for a SUN-2
    called IRIS and one from a 390 called BROWNVM which is obviously the
    one you want.  Part of each record is a structure for each person
    associated with the node including a list of keywords defining their
    role in network management.

    This is a basic procedure anyone can try to use to track down
    information on a specific BITNET address.  Be forewarned however,
    that the degree of responsiveness from people with the same roles
    can vary considerably from node to node.  Don't be surprised if you
    don't get a response right away....

    /June Genis
    Stanford INFOREP

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                   Conservation DistList Instance 2:6
                Distributed: Tuesday, September 27, 1988
                        Message Id: cdl-2-6-003
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