The Edges of the Matrix John S. Quarterman jsq@tic.com Copyright (c) 1993 Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS) From *Matrix News* 3(3), March 1993. Contact: mids@tic.com, +1-512-451-7602, fax: +1-512-450-1436. What are the geographical edges of the networked world? This is a peculiar question, with a constantly varying answer. Here's what I've found. If you know more, please let me know. 1. South In the book, *The Matrix*, I mentioned that the U.S. Palmer, Siple, and South Pole stations exchanged mail with the Matrix by way of Kermit over a satellite link to a NASA machine in Florida. This arrangement is still in place for the South Pole station, making it clearly the most southerly networked place in the world, at 90 degrees south. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station does not have a permanent link, and does not use the usual protocols of networks like the Internet, UUCP, FidoNet, or BITNET, but mail is exchanged with the Matrix. The AQ DNS domain for Antarctica was registered in March 1992 by New Zealand, specifically by their Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). DSIR has a permanent satellite link to Scott Base on Ross Island. They run IP over that link, and it is routed with the Internet. But apparently it isn't configured for international access; I can't reach it from here. However, two kilometers away is the U.S. McMurdo base. McMurdo was first connected to the Internet in about February 1992. Apparently there was some problem with 200mph winds during Antarctic winter, but McMurdo has been up solidly since at least December 1992 (Antarctic summer). That's about 78S 166E. It is rumored that Australia has a link to their Antarctic base to Hobart, Tasmania, but it is apparently not Matrix News, mids@tic.com 3(3), March 1993 Edges - 2 - South routed with the rest of the Internet. Other countries are also considering Internet connections from Antarctica, and some may be up already. There are no FidoNet, UUCP, or BITNET sites in Antarctica that I know of. The southernmost networked place *not* in Antarctica appears to be Hobart, Tasmania, which has UUCP, FidoNet, and Internet connections. There is no BITNET in Australia or New Zealand. 2. North The northernmost networked place in the world is harder to discover, because there are so many contenders. Most northerly appears to be a node on the NASA Science Network (part of the Internet), in Thule, Greenland, at 77 40N 69 0W. There are a few towns farther north than that, in Greenland, on Ellesmere Island, in Svalbard, and in Franz Josef's Land, but they don't seem to be networked. Second most northerly appears to be a PC clone running Waffle on the North Slope of Alaska, in Atqasuk: 70 28 10N 157 23 45W. This is a bit hard to discover, since the UUCP map listing for it has 70 28N 157 23N. Unless this node is run by Santa Claus, it's hard to believe it is north of the North Pole. This host is really connected using the WWIVnet protocols. Other than Atqasuk, the northernmost networked place in the United States is apparently Fairbanks, Alaska. The most northerly Canadian hosts appear to be in the Northwest Territories. There are two on FidoNet. The most northerly is the one in Rankin Inlet, 62 30N 93 0W. The other is in Yellowknife. There is a UUCP host in Yellowknife, as well. That's 62 27 43N 114 26 04W. The most northerly Yukon host appears to be on FidoNet, in Whitehorse, at 60 43N 135 03W. There is one site in Greenland that I can't locate: Edgedesminde. That may be way north. However, Nuuk is on FidoNet, at 64 10N 51 35W. Iceland is farther north, and Kopasker appears to be the most northerly site in Iceland, with both Internet and UUCP connections, at 66 20 30N 16 29 30W. Reykjavik is only a few degrees farther south, and has UUCP, FidoNet, BITNET, and Internet connections, at 64 08 35N 21 57 35W. Norway: Tromsoe, with Internet and FidoNet connections, Matrix News, mids@tic.com 3(3), March 1993 Edges - 3 - North at 69 40N 18 50E. This is also the site of the most northerly networked university in the world. Sweden: Lulea, with FidoNet, UUCP, and Internet connections, at 65 35 22N 22 10 00E. Finland: Oulu, with Internet, BITNET, and FidoNet connections, at 65 13 00N 25 19 00E. In Russia, Murmansk doesn't seem to be networked, but Sverodvinsk and Archangelsk are, around 64 34N 39 50E, on FidoNet. Then there is Komi, on UUCP, at 63 33 00N 53 38 00E; Petrozavodsk, Karelia, also on UUCP, at 61 47N 34 20E; Ivanovo, on FidoNet, at 60 32N 36 22E; and eventually St. Petersburg, on most networks, at 59 55N 30 15E. 3. West Westernmost doesn't mean much on a round planet, but the networked place farthest west in longitude from Greenwich is Hawaii, with Honolulu at more than 157 degrees west. Exactly which town on which island is the westernmost networked is unclear. 4. East Easternmost from Greenwich is Fiji, where the Department of Mathematics of the University of the South Pacific in Suva, at 18 6S 178 30E, has a UUCP link to New Zealand. Then there are various places in New Zealand, such as Wellington, which is connected to most networks except BITNET, at 41 17 25S 174 46 07E. Christchurch is also far east, followed by Port-Vila, Vanuatu, on the RIO UUCP network, at 17 44S 168 19E. Then there is Scott Station (NZ), Antarctica, on the Internet; Noumea, New Caledonia, on RIO; and McMurdo Station (US), Antarctica, on the Internet, all between 166 and 167 degrees east. Gold Coast, Queensland, is probably the easternmost networked place in Australia, on FidoNet, at 28 04S 153 25E. Australia being one of the most networked places in the world, many other Australian locations follow. Russia's easternmost networked outpost appears to be Magadan, north of the Sea of Okhotsk, and at the end of the road from the west, with both FidoNet, and UUCP, at 59 34N 150 48E. There appears to be nothing on the Kamchatka Peninsula, or farther east. Sakhalin Island is on the map, with UUCP. Guam's easternmost networked point is on FidoNet, at Matrix News, mids@tic.com 3(3), March 1993 Edges - 4 - East 13 29 02N 144 48 23E. The easternmost networked place in the Land of the Rising Sun is Kushiro, Hokaido, Japan, on the Internet, at 42 58N 144 23E. Sapporo follows soon after, with Internet and UUCP connections. References Matrix News, mids@tic.com 3(3), March 1993