Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
worked at a private company in the next town. In 1989, the NSF
lifted its email restriction and allowed email connectivity for two
commercial network vendors, CompuServe and MCI Mail. By the
start of the 1990s, the NSF network connected many research, sci
entific, and academic institutions; and several private and commer
cial networks had emerged for other purposes. Email and file trans
fer applications were used widely.
Then, in 1991, two major changes occurred. Commercial re
strictions began to be phased out, and the NSF developed plans to
turn its Internet over to the private sector. Originally, privatization
involved identifying several companies to run national operations,
called
National Access Points (NAPs)
. Each NAP was run by a sep
arate company, called a
National Access Provider
, and based in a
different location. Regional and local organizations, called
Internet
Service Providers (ISPs)
, could attach to a NAP to provide Internet
access for companies, schools, individuals, and other interested par
ties. By 1995, the move toward privatization was largely complete
with four NAPs: Ameritech ran the NAP in Chicago, MFS
Corporation ran the NAP in Washington, D.C., Sprint ran the NAP
in New York, and Pacific Bell ran the NAP in San Francisco.
Today, the various NAPs and ISPs operate as separate compa
nies, but standards organizations specify how communications will
take place. Further, standards allow for expansion, and new com
panies can join the Internet without requiring any changes to exist
ing NAPs and ISPs. This has allowed connections to the Internet to
grow at a remarkable rate. For example,
www.thedirectory.org
maintains a listing of ISPs based on regions of the country and or
ganized by telephone area code. In their January 7, 2002, materials,
the directory stated that “As of November, 1998 . . . we had almost
200 companies that were nationwide providers. . . . We now have
over 1,300 nationwide providers in our database and the number is
still increasing.” They go on to state that some areas of the United
States had as many as 1500 ISPs.
With all of these independent companies and networks, proto
cols describe formats for messages in considerable detail, so com
munications can proceed from one provider to another without dif
ficulty. Overall, you can consider the United States's NAPs and ISPs
as representing a confederation of companies, with guidance and
standards coming from various specified national or international
committees and agencies.
