Gregory, N: Tym Before ...

Meanwhile, there arose many commercial entities jockeying for a piece of the existing network pie. They called themselves ISPs, but the acronym was not the same as we know today. It stood for IP Services Providers, and they were looking to use Internet technologies to cannibalize the many dedicated corporate networks, as well as the pre-existing commercial public packet-switched networks with a less expensive alternative. Chief among these was UUNET, founded in 1987. They profoundly disliked ANS! They considered ANS a threat to the openness of the Internet. There was a joke at the time that said "The only thing missing from ANS is U" which appeared on a popular T-shirt at Interop Spring 1992. Debate raged about who was going to "own" the Internet when the NSF turned off the government-funded backbone. The IP Services Providers began carrying traffic by interconnecting. From this debate emerged an independent entity beyond the control of the NSF, an interconnection point called MAE-East. This collection of scrappy upstart ISPs united for the formation of MAE-East and drove the creation of the long-haul Commercial Internet backbone with MFS Datanet. From there, the Commercial Internet developed and grew, and became the Internet we know today. The book "Securing the Network" tells the story of how this happened and the roles of people who made it happen. Learn the forgotten side of Internet history. Buy "Securing the Network" today!