Notes on Austpac ---------------- by Vorper VII, 28/9/98 These assume a basic knowledge of X.25 networks, ie the meaning of terms such as NUI, NUA, DNIC, X.121 addressing. Austpac is Australia's public X.25 network, and has DNIC 5052. It is owned by Telstra, the national telecommunications carrier (there are now competitors to Telstra such as Optus). DNIC 5053, formerly 'Midas', was run by OTC (Overseas Telecommunications ?), which is now part of Telstra. Midas was renamed Austpac International, I'm not even sure if it exists now. All NUAs I have tried to access in 5053 have not connected, from both sprintnet and austpac locally. When entering NUAs from within Austpac, the last digit of the DNIC is kept, but the first 3 (505) are not, since they would be redundant. Calling out is done as in Sprintnet, by prefixing the NUA with a 0. eg. 505222150054 would be 222150054 locally, and 3106900803 (DIALOG on Tymnet) would be called as 03106900803 from Austpac Many Australian Universities used to use Austpac for communication, and to allow students/staff to dial in from country areas without incurring long distance telephone charges, but due to lack of use they have closed their Austpac gateways (Deakin closed in 1997, Melbourne Univeristy closed in 1994, there may still be one or two). The main uses now appear to be corporate data transfer. EFTPOS information is transferred over X.25, but I am not sure if Austpac is used. ISDN customers can also use Austpac through the D channel. The National Library runs an austpac services, with an internet gateway and the library catalog available on Austpac, but this will be closed soon. NUA Format ---------- Sample NUA: 222150054 The first digit (2) indicates that this NUA is in Austpac, rather than in any of the other Australian X.25 networks. A list of other networks is included at the end. The second digit indicates the state, and matches the old metropolitan are codes for the Australian PSTN. So the above NUA is in New South Wales. The exact meaning of the next four digits are uncertain, but the following has been observed in practice: The pattern of *invalid* NUA areas is the same for each possibility of digits 3 and 4. So if the range 221010000 to 221010999 returned CLR NP 067 for every call attempt, the same would hold for 22xy10000 to 22xy10999, replacing x and y with any digits. Also from experience, if one NUA in a block of 1000 returns CLR NP 067, all others in that block will too. Despite this symmetry, machines are only present an one NUA. These patterns are different in each state, but consistent within a single state, and so reduce scanning time quite considerably. The 5th and 6th digits determine whether a block is valid or invalid, as described above. The last three digits specify a particular PAD, and the vast majority of these are in the lowest 100 of each block of 1000. There are also an optional two extra digits which can be added to an NUA, which will be passed to the called PAD. In Sprintnet, these are seperated from the NUA by a '.' symbol. NUI Format ---------- The format of an Austpac NUI is: ABCDEF123456 Where 123456 is the user identifier, and ABCDEF is the password (this is changeable by the NUI owner by calling a special NUA). A call with a NUI is made by prefixing the NUA to call with 'NABCDEF123456-'. The NUI will not be displayed as it is entered. eg. To call DIALOG on Tymnet with the above NUI, you would enter: NABCDEF123456-3106900803 and you would see: N-3106900803 Both the user identifier and password are alpha-numeric. NUIs may be found programmed into PADs, perhaps for accounting purposes (each department/person uses an different NUI, and is billed for that NUI). The password portion of the NUI can be changed by calling: NABCDEF123456-.AINS .AINS is the mnemonic for Austpac Intelligent Network Service, and it will allow you to change the password for the NUI you called with, as well as list which Closed User Groups the NUI is a member of, and other things. Australian Network Identifiers ------------------------------ Prefix Allocation Date Organisation 5052 30 June 1991 Telstra Corporation Ltd 5053 30 June 1991 Telstra Corporation Ltd 50541 6 September 1994 AAPT Ltd 50542 6 September 1994 AAPT Ltd 50543 6 September 1994 AAPT Ltd 50560 16 February 1994 SingCom (Australia) Pty Ltd 50568 16 February 1994 SingCom (Australia) Pty Ltd 50569 16 February 1994 SingCom (Australia) Pty Ltd 50573000 30 June 1991 Fujitsu Australia Ltd 50573500 19 February 1992 Department Of Defence 505790 17 November 1993 Department Of Defence 505791 17 November 1993 Department Of Defence 505799 23 February 1995 Telstra Corporation Ltd 5052 = Austpac 5053 = Austpac International (formerly Midas / OTC Data Access) 5054 = Australian Teletex Network 5057 = Australian Private Networks NB The allocation dates are official allocation dates, not necessarily actual dates. Austpac existed long before 1991. Old Australian Metropolitan Area Codes -------------------------------------- Area Code State NUA Prefix 02 New South Wales 50522 03 Victoria 50523 06 Australian Capital Territory 50526 07 Queensland 50527 08 South Australia 50528 09 Western Australia 50529 50521 appears to be used for dialup PAD nuas, perhaps more. The addressing format for other states is unknown. Austpac dialups --------------- X.28 = asynchronous X.32 = synchronous Australia only: Number Speed Protocol 1800 65 5057 9600? X.28 1800 65 3991 9600? X.28 01922 300 X.28 01924 2400 X.28 01925 2400 X.32 13 1400 9600 X.28 13 1344 9600 X.32 International: Number Speed Protocol +613 9663 3771 ? X.28 +613 9521 3001 ? X.32 +612 9221 4400 ? X.28 +617 3393 0788 ? X.28 +618 8231 0201 ? X.28 +618 9481 0819 ? X.28 Some of these numbers may not work anymore.