012.17 The UNINETT SAMSON Project by Peter Hausken UNINETT is the Norwegian network for education and research. The goal of the SAMSON project is to provide network access to all higher education (120 units) in Norway by the end of 1992. Coordinating student applications for higher education (12th year and upwards) is the initial goal of the project, but SAMSON will eventually give the institutions access to all UNINETT services including SMTP and X.400 electronic mail, FTP file transfer, X.500 directory services, Telnet and TN3270 virtual terminals, and the Internet Gopher information system. For those institutions not already connected to the network (80 sites), the project has bought equipment, ordered leased lines from the Norwegian Telecom and will install it preconfigured with all services at the schools. A Hewlett-Packard series 9000 model 705 will function as a postoffice, Domain Name System server, information server, and as a workstation. A HP ER Router will transfer TCP/IP traffic between the LAN and UNINETT. Both the UNIX machine and the router will be managed over the network from the computing centers at the universities. Network management is done by SNMP and UNIX management by Palantir (developed at the University in Oslo). UNIX software will be maintained using track. This is done to make it possible to operate a UNIX machine at sites with no UNIX knowledge. The network is organized with network hubs in each county connecting to the four Norwegian universities located in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Tromso. Most schools already has various Personal Computers and a local area network. UNINETT services will also be available on these machines using public domain TCP/IP programs or commercial products. User support at the schools is done by the local computer staff, who is supported by the University computing centers. Training is given by UNINETT and the Universities.