Out of date contact information

Thu May 2 09:08:30 UTC 1996

Obviously biased towards English speaking network users, but here's my
breakdown of common (more than one organization using) role-based e-mail
contact addresses.  I've grouped them based on my observations how sites
seem to use them.

Operations
	action
	noc
	root
	routing
	security
	trouble

Protocol
	ftp
	gopher
	hostmaster
	mbone
	news
	ntp
	postmaster
	usenet
	webmaster

Administrative
	admin
	abuse
	billing
	info
	moreinfo
	nic
	sales
	service
	support

And one I wish existed

Informational
	fyi	-  no action or response needed, but you might want to
                   know about it.  Or the "We know its broken, don't bother
                   calling" address.

If people agree on a common practice for naming role-based accounts, great.

But since many sites still have trouble handling "postmaster" I won't hold
my breath.  An up-to-date "real" name, e-mail address, and telephone number
somewhere for a network is still a necessity, even if just a last resort.
I know we've messed up and dropped trouble tickets into a black hole.  Its
really tough to tell people their e-mail system isn't working when the
only contact information you have is an e-mail address.  When no one
updates the role-base alias when the person leaves, if given the old
contact's name the telephone receptionist can often tell callers the
name of the new person in the position.  Asking for the Postmaster may
get you transferred to the shipping department instead of the computer
department.  Asking for the MBONE person might get you reported to the
police as an obscene caller.

While we're trying to agree on a common practice, may I suggest each
NANO take a few minutes and do a little spring cleaning.

Check at least the WHOIS contact information for your own Autonomous System
Number(s) for people who no longer work there, out of date phone numbers
or addresses.  If you use role-based accounts, could you consider listing
a person as an alternate contact.  Maybe make this a twice a year event,
change your clocks, change your smoke detector batteries and update your
WHOIS information.
-- 
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
  Affiliation given for identification not representation