N-1-3-012.55, "Hungary and Internet", by Laszlo Csaba, In the last few months, evolution in the networking field has been speeded up due to the vanishing embargo. Today, the emphasis is on TCP/IP networking. The first Networkshop on TCP/IP was organized this last April. More than 400 attendees participated. Many of the papers presented were about TCP/IP and international networking. E-mail connectivity within the country between research sites has improved. Mail gateways with UNIX and VMS operating systems are running 24 hours a day. Roughly 30 Novell networks use the popular Charon/Pegasus mail gateway/mailer pair. The e-mail protocol between VAX/VMS systems is SMTP over X.25. The number of e-mail users is more then 12,000. The HUEARN (EARN/BITNET) node switched to the TCP/IP protocol and consequently, to VMNET software. The role of domain administration has been recognized and the ".hu" domain administration is well on its way. A brand new Sun Sparc station 2 is the primary domain name server for Hungary. The HBONE project for constructing the Hungarian IP backbone was initiated. The design criteria for the network has already been accepted. Many sites are still waiting for proper TCP/IP routers. The first Cisco routers have arrived. The EGP protocol is used on the international line with the autonomous system number 1955. The stability of the network increased with the introduction of a proper router. The estimated number of IP hosts is around 2,000-3,000. They will appear in the international statistics when internetworking between the big sites' nameserver's and the top-level DNS are established. Cooperation with European networking organizations is very good.