15. Brief Guide to JPNIC Information Services
					ftp:pub/jpnic/jpnic-services.txt
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	      Brief Guide to JPNIC Information Services
			     (May, 1993)

				Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC)
				c/o Computer Centre, Univ. of Tokyo
				Yayoi 2-11-16, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan


JPNIC is a country NIC of Japan. All information of JP domain names,
IP network numbers, name servers, contact persons, and network
providers in Japan are collected into JPNIC database to be retrieved
via whois service. JPNIC cooperates with InterNIC to keep the database
consistent.

Here is an example to retrieve the JPNIC database with whois. If you
want to know what domain name "ABC University" has, execute a whois
command on your machine as follows:

	% whois -h whois.nic.ad.jp ABC/e

It may produce a lot of summary lines including other information such
as IP addresses but you will find its domain name if it has. After
getting the domain name ABC.AC.JP, you'd better check its full content
as follows (if "ABC" matches only single entry, whois generates its
full content directly):

	% whois -h whois.nic.ad.jp ABC.AC.JP/e

If its state is not "Connected" you do not reach at the domain. Even if
the state is "Connected" some domains are not reachable from outside of
Japan depending on its right of international link use.

JPNIC whois has similar functions to InterNIC whois. If you want know
more on its usage please send help as follows:

	% whois -h whois.nic.ad.jp HELP/e

If your machine doesn't have whois, use telnet instead as follows:

	% telnet whois.nic.ad.jp 43
	[ connecting messages... ]
	ABC/e

If you unfortunately don't have direct Internet connectivity, you can
send a request via electronic mail as follows:

	% mail mail-server@nic.ad.jp
	whois ABC/e

If you can or want to read them in Japanese, omit trailing "/e" in any
case.

JPNIC database is for network operation. It includes "point of contact"
of the information but is NOT intented to be a general directory. 
(Don't ask us your friend's address, please.)

All of the domain names under JP are also obtained from JPNIC via two
methods, anonymous ftp and electronic mail as follows:

	% ftp ftp.nic.ad.jp
	Name: ftp
	Password: your_login_name
	ftp> get pub/jpnic/domain-list-e.txt

	% mail mail-server@nic.ad.jp
	send jpnic/domain-list-e.txt

In the list domains not connected are enclosed by parentheses. If you
can't find a name in the list (as well as whois), it doesn't have a
domain name under JP. Most universities of BITNET Japan don't use JP
domain names yet so they are reachable via a gateway but don't appear
in the list. JPNIC database only maintains the third level of JP
domain names, so you can't find any organizations hidden under the
third level of a JP domain.
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