Internet Systems Consortium, Inc., also known as ISC, is an American non-profit corporation that supports the infrastructure of the universal, self-organizing

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

by developing and maintaining core production-quality software,

protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

, and operations. ISC has developed several key Internet technologies that enable the global Internet, including:

BIND BIND () is a suite of software for interacting with the Domain Name System (DNS). Its most prominent component, named (pronounced ''name-dee'': , short for ''name Daemon (computing), daemon''), performs both of the main DNS server roles, acting ...

, ISC DHCP and

Kea The kea ( ; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the Family (biology), family Strigopidae that is endemic to the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green, with br ...

. Other software projects no longer in active development include OpenReg and ISC AFTR (an implementation of an IPv4/IPv6 transition protocol based on

Dual-Stack Lite An IPv6 transition mechanism is a technology that facilitates the IPv6 deployment, transitioning of the Internet from the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) infrastructure in use since 1983 to the successor addressing and routing system of IPv6, ...

). ISC operates one of the 13 global authoritative DNS root servers, F-Root. Over the years a number of additional software systems were operated under ISC (for example: INN and

Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

) to better support the Internet's infrastructure. ISC also expanded their operational activities to include Internet hosting facilities for other open-source projects such as

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...

XFree86 XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and was available for many other operating systems and platforms. It is free software, free and Open-source softw ...

, kernel.org, secondary name-service (SNS) for more than 50 top-level domains, and a DNS OARC (Operations, Analysis and Research Center) for monitoring and reporting of the Internet's DNS. ISC is actively involved in the community design process; it authors and participates in the development of the

IETF The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet standard, Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster ...

standards, including the production of managed open-source software used as a reference implementation of the DNS. ISC is primarily funded by the sale of technical support contracts for its open source software.

History

Originally the company was founded as the Internet Software Consortium, Inc. The founders included Paul Vixie, Rick Adams and Carl Malamud. The corporation was intended to continue the development of

software. The founders believed that it was necessary that BIND's maintenance and development be managed and funded by an independent organization. ISC was designated as a root name server operator by

IANA The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet P ...

, originally as NS.ISC.ORG and later as F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. In January 2004, ISC reorganized under the new name Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. In July 2013, ISC spun off the Security Business Unit t
Farsight Security, Inc.
a new company started by ISC founder Paul Vixie. In early 2020, ISC closed its headquarters in Redwood City, California and moved its operations to Newmarket, New Hampshire.

Open Source

ISC develops and maintains open source networking software, including

and two DHCP implementations: ISC DHCP and Kea DHCP. ISC also distributes INN and several older, unmaintained projects. Some early aspects of its software were developed by developers that were commercially employed by Nominum, amongst others.

ISC license

ISC developed and used the ISC license, which is functionally similar to the simplified BSD and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

licenses. The ISC license is

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free software, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking NetBSD ...

's preferred license for new code. All current versions of ISC-hosted software are available under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

DNS root server

ISC operates the DNS "F" root server, the first such server to be distributed using anycast. In 2007 it was announced that ISC and

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

would sign an agreement regarding the operation of F, the first such agreement made between ICANN and a root-server operator.

Usenet moderators list

ISC maintains and publishes (on ftp.isc.org) the central

Usenet Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...

moderators list and relays for moderated groups, so individual server operators don't have to track moderator changes.Usenet Hierarchy FAQ Section 4

Internet Domain Survey

The Internet Domain Survey searched the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...

(DNS) to discover every Internet host. The survey began when only a few hundred hosts were Internet-linked. The earliest published reports, dated 1993, were performed by Network Wizards owner Mark K. Lottor. The Internet host count was in January 1993 and in the January 2017 survey. ISC ended its sponsorship and publication of th
Internet Domain Survey
in 2019.

References

{{Reflist

External links

ISC
Official site Non-profit organizations based in New Hampshire DNS software Organizations established in 1994 Software companies established in 1994 1994 establishments in California Software companies of the United States 501(c)(3) organizations