Re: the original thirteen NSFNET regionals

[Erik Sherk]

> > From: "Miguel A.L. Paraz" <map@iphil.net>
> > Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 19:16:01 +0800 (HKT)
> > Sender: owner-nanog@merit.edu
> > 
> > Rob Gutierrez wrote:
> > > Does NSI (NASA Science Internet) qualify as one of those?  Yeah, it was
> > > 1989 when it started (Hi Milo!), but ... :)
> 
> Not really. Both NSI and ESnet backbones pre-date the NSF regionals
> and received no NSF funding, being funded by NASA and the Department
> of Energy, respectively. These were established as national backbones,
> independent of the NSFnet though both did peer with the NSFnet at
> FIX-East (at UMD and later at SURAnet) and FIX-West (at
> NASA-Ames). Milo was largely responsible for the FIX design which was
> the pre-cursor in many ways to the current MAE design and both
> locations were connected to the MAEs.
> 
> It might be noted that both NASA and ESnet were originally primarily
> DECnet networks as they pre-date IP development by a little bit. They
> also, in there early forms (SPAN, HEPnet, and MFEnet) predate the
> NSFnet.
> 
> FIX-West is still in business while FIX-East is being dismantled as I
> type as BBN Planet is moving out of the old SURAnet facility.
> 


Yea, I was in the old NOC on friday and wrote a large


       ^^^^^
   ^^^^     ^^^^
   |  SURAnet  |
   |  '86-'95  |
   |    RIP    |
   |           |
   -------------

Of course, I had to cross out the 'RIP' and write 'ISIS' :-)


Erik