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{{Short description|Academic computer network}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2010}}
{{Internet history timeline}}

'''BITNET''' was a co-operative [[United States|U.S.]] university computer network founded in 1981 by [[Ira Fuchs]] at the [[City University of New York]] (CUNY) and Greydon Freeman at [[Yale University]].<ref name=CREN>{{cite web|title=A Brief History of "Bit.net"|url=http://bit.net/|website=Bit.net|access-date=August 30, 2012}}</ref> The first network link was between CUNY and Yale.

==Background==
The name BITNET originally meant "Because It's There Network", but it eventually came to mean "Because It's Time Network".<ref name="CailliauGillies2000">{{cite book|first1=Robert|last1=Cailliau|first2=James|last2=Gillies|title=How the Web Was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BCZhPwAACAAJ|date=1 January 2000|publisher=San Val, Incorporated|isbn=978-0-613-92163-3|pages=74, 75}}</ref>

A college or university wishing to join BITNET was required to [[leased line|lease a data circuit]] from a site to an existing BITNET [[node (networking)|node]], buy [[modem]]s for each end of the data circuit, sending one to the connecting point site, and allow other institutions to connect to its site free of charge.

In the early 1980s, the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF) had several initiatives running to help spread the benefits of networking. One of these efforts was called [[CSNET]], and it linked together several computer science departments across the country using TCP/IP. Another was a network of regional computer networks that linked up universities in different parts of the country. In 1981, universities came together to form BITNET, which allowed thousands of new users to experience innovations such as email and file transfers for the first time. All of these new networks showed the possibilities of computer networks and helped stoke demand for a robust nationwide network like NSFNET.

BITNET’s first electronic magazine, VM/COM, began as a [[University of Maine]] newsletter and circulated broadly in early 1984. Two email newsletters that began as Bitnet newsletters in the fall of 1987 are known to still be transmitting. They are the Electronic Air and SCUP Email News (formerly SCUP Bitnet News).

IBM gave BITNET a $2 million grant over three years during the mid-1980s.{{r|fisher19880425}} BITNET's eligibility requirements limited exchange with commercial entities, including IBM itself, which made technical assistance and bug fixes difficult. This became a particular problem when trying to communicate on heterogeneous networks with graphical workstation vendors such as [[Silicon Graphics]].

==Technical details==
BITNET, with [[Remote Spooling Communications Subsystem]] (RSCS) and the [[Network Job Entry]] (NJE) [[network protocol]], was used for the huge [[IBM]] internal network known as [[VNET]]. BITNET links originally ran at 9600 bit/s. The BITNET [[Protocol (computing)|protocol]]s were eventually ported to non-IBM [[mainframe computer|mainframe]] [[operating system]]s, and became particularly widely implemented under [[VAX/VMS]], in addition to [[DECnet]].

BITNET featured [[email]] and [[LISTSERV]] software, but predated the [[World Wide Web]], the common use of [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]], and [[Gopher (protocol)|Gopher]]. [[Gateway (telecommunications)|Gateway]]s for the lists made them available on [[Usenet]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hura |first=Gurdeep |date=28 March 2001 |title=Data and Computer Communications: Networking and Internetworking |url=https://archive.org/details/datacomputercomm0000hura |url-access=registration |publisher=[[CRC Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/datacomputercomm0000hura/page/779 779] |isbn=9780849309281}}</ref> BITNET also supported interactive transmission of files and messages to other users. A gateway service called [[TRICKLE]] enabled users to request files from Internet FTP servers in 64 Kb [[Uuencoding|UUencoded]] chunks. The ''Interchat Relay Network'', popularly known as [[Bitnet Relay]], was the network's [[instant messaging]] feature.

BITNET differed from the [[Internet]] in that it was a [[point-to-point (telecommunications)|point-to-point]] "[[store and forward]]" network. That is, [[email]] messages and files were transmitted in their entirety from one server to the next until reaching their destination. From this perspective, BITNET was more like [[UUCPNET]].

==Extent==
{{asof|1988|04}} BITNET connected about 400 universities and 1200 computers.<ref name="fisher19880425">{{Cite magazine |last=Fisher |first=Sharon |date=1988-04-25 |title=The Largest Computer Network |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pj0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q&f=false |access-date=2025-04-17 |magazine=InfoWorld |pages=S7-S10}}</ref> At its zenith around 1991, BITNET extended to almost 500 organizations and 3,000 nodes, all educational institutions. It spanned North America (in Canada it was known as NetNorth), Europe (as [[European Academic Research Network|EARN]]),<ref>{{cite book | title = The User's Directory of Computer Networks | editor = Tracy Laquey | isbn = 9781483296418 | year = 1990}}</ref> Israel (as [[ISRAEARN]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dhhumanist.org/Archives/Virginia/v04/1140.html |title=Humanist Archives Vol. 4 : 4.1144 Bitnet in Israel (1/69) |website=Dhhumanist.org |date=1991-03-08 |access-date=2017-03-07}}</ref> India ([[VIDYANET]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/as-emails-turn-40-scientists-recall-india-arrival-277436 |title=As emails turn 40, scientists recall India arrival | NDTV Gadgets360.com |website=Gadgets.ndtv.com |date=2012-10-09 |access-date=2017-03-07}}</ref> and some [[Persian Gulf]] states (as GulfNet). BITNET was also very popular in other parts of the world, especially in South America, where about 200 nodes were implemented and heavily used in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Part of the South African inter-university academic network, initially known as UNINET, and later TENET (Tertiary Education Network) was implemented using BITNET protocols in the late 1980s, with a TCP/IP gateway to the Internet via [[Rhodes University]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Lawrie|first=Mike|title=The History of the Internet in South Africa - How it began|url=http://archive.hmvh.net/txtfiles/interbbs/SAInternetHistory.pdf|access-date=7 August 2012}}</ref> With the rapid growth of [[Internet protocol suite|TCP/IP]] systems and the Internet in the early 1990s, and the rapid abandonment of the base IBM mainframe platform for academic purposes, BITNET's popularity and use diminished quickly.

==Legacy==

[[File:MAD MMORPG Log 1986.jpg|thumb|right|An extract of MAD's connection log from 1986 shows the frequency of connections worldwide.]]

BITNET hosted its first [[multi-user dungeon]] (MUD) in 1984, the text-based MAD.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=BITNET |pages=56–57 |last=Warf |first=Barney |editor-last1=Warf |editor-first1=Barney |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Internet |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-4739-2661-5 |publisher=SAGE Publications |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Players connected from the United States, Europe or Israel to a single server running in France.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

In 1996, [[Corporation for Research and Educational Networking|CREN]] ended their support for BITNET. The individual nodes were free to keep their phone lines up as long as they wished, but as nodes dropped out, the network splintered into parts that were inaccessible from each other. As of 2007, BITNET has essentially ceased operation. However, a successor, BITNET II, which transmits information via the Internet using BITNET protocols, still has some users.

==See also==
* [[Christmas Tree EXEC]]
* [[History of the Internet]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/85.841135 A Social History of Bitnet and Listserv, 1985–1991]
* [http://livinginternet.com/u/ui_bitnet.htm Living Internet – BITNET]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091124043245/http://nethistory.dumbentia.com/ NetHistory – Archive of BITNET newsletters and stories] (from archive.org)
* [https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/why-everyone-forgets-about-the-global-computer-network-that-came-before-the-internet-1db0c7c12ce0 Entrepreneur's Handbook, April 2021]
* [https://latonas.com/blog/web-masters-episode-32-ira-fuchs/ Web Masters Episode #32, April 2021]

{{Telecommunications}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:History of telecommunications]]
[[Category:Wide area networks]]

BITNET - Revision history

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