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.