Southern Africa Internetworking: where we are, where we could be
| Date | 01 April 1995 |
| Published date | 01 April 1995 |
| Pages | 397-400 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045396 |
| Author | Mike Lawrie |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Article
Southern Africa Internetworking:
where we
are,
where we could be
Mike Lawrie
Manager,
UNINET,
Foundation for Research
Development,
PO Box 2600,
Pretoria, 0001 South Africa
E-mail:
mlawrie@apies.frd.ac.za
Abstract: This paper covers a brief history of
the
Internet in
Southern
Africa.
It
covers the period from about 1985 when university efforts were
first
formalised,
the effect of the FRD taking a positive interest in
1987,
the efforts in establishing
the international gateway in
1989,
the first
TCP/IP
link in
1991
and links into
Africa from
UNINET.
It then goes on to review the present situation, where there
are four Internet service providers, direct links to a number of African countries
and severe growing pains. Some of the problems of the present situation are
highlighted as well
as
stumbling blocks that are inhibiting
expansion.
The paper
closes with a vision of what might be achieved and the benefits that would arise
therefrom.
1.
History of the Internet in
Southern Africa
The South African Internet
was
started
in 1991. A 9600 baud leased line be-
tween Rhodes University and the
NSFNET began carrying Internet
traf-
fic in November 1991. This had been
preceded by work on a number of In-
ternet-style links between several uni-
versities, the pioneers being Rhodes,
UCT and the University of Natal.
1. 1. University efforts
Under the auspices of the Committee
of University Principals, a network
committee was established in 1985.
This committee was hampered by lack
of funds for the necessary circuits, and
at that stage the arguments as to which
network protocol to use were quite
emotional. There was an IBM SNA
network linking the Universities of
Potchefstroom, Wits (University of
the Witwatersrand) and Pretoria, with
links to the CSIR's IBM-compatible
system and maybe elsewhere. Rhodes
and Potch established a dial-up Bitnet-
style link in that era.
1.2. FRD interest
Given the lack of sufficient progress
by the universities, the Foundation for
Research Development took a deci-
sion that lead to the establishing of the
UNINET Project in
1987.
Seed money
was made available and
a
manager was
appointed. This was done with the
blessing of
the
universities' computer
committee.
The initial circuits of UNINET car-
ried a variety of protocols, but not
those of the Internet. The emotional ar-
guments on this topic were still very
strong until the policy statement was
made that UNINET should function to
the standards of the Internet, and fol-
low those standards as they evolved.
1.3. The first UNINETgateway to
the USA
With the first
phase
of UNINET opera-
tional in 1988, efforts were made to
link UNINET to the USA. UCT had
established a link to UUNET —it
lasted about three weeks and then the
plug was pulled for political reasons.
There was a link at the University of
Natal into the NASA network but this
was not available for general use.
Quite independently of UNINET,
Rhodes used its experience with dial-
up working to establish a link to the
USA by means of a PC running the Fi-
donet mailing system. A gateway was
written to link the homebrew mailing
system on the Rhodes Cyber and the
Fidonet PC.
In
1989,
with due caution for politi-
cal reasons, this link was expanded to
allow
e-mail
to flow between the In-
ternet and most of the UNINET sites.
In 1990, the Fidonet link was re-
placed with a dial-up UUCP link,
which gave vastly superior features.
This step allowed easy transition to the
full TCP/IP protocols of the Internet in
November 1991.
As soon as the Fidonet gateway
started operating, a link was estab-
lished to a site in Botswana. Thus UN-
INET, and Rhodes University in par-
ticular, became involved in acting as
the gateway to the Internet for coun-
tries in Southern Africa.
2.
Present situation
2.
1. South Africa
Apart from UNINET, there are three
other Internet service providers (ISPs)
in full operation and a fourth that is
about to start.
UNINET is constrained by Telkom
and by the objectives of the FRD to
limit its customer base to institutions
that are involved in academic and re-
search activities. There are further
constraints, due to the association that
UNINET has with the NSFNET or-
The Electronic Library,
Vol.
13,
No.
4,
August 1995 397
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