XLINK (originally the Externe Lokale Informatik-Netz Karlsruhe), was the external connection of the computer science network of the universities in
Karlsruhe, Germany), subsequently becoming part of the first commercial
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...
(ISP) in Germany.
History
It was created in 1984, when it offered one of the first
UUCP
UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) is a suite of computer programs and communications protocol, protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of computer file, files, email and netnews between computers.
A command named is one of the prog ...
connections from Germany to the United States (via
UUNET
UUNET Technologies, Inc., formerly UUNET Communications Services, was an American commercial Internet service provider. Founded in 1987, it was one of the first and largest commercial ISPs and one of the early Tier 1 networks. It was based in ...
), and from November 1989 it also offered Internet connectivity mainly to universities in the south of Germany.
XLINK was one of the founding members of
RIPE and of
DENIC; its autonomous system number was AS517.
It was transformed into (part of) a company in 1993, and as such, competed with the UniDO ISP (incorporated as
EUnet Germany) for the title of first commercial ISP in Germany.
It was bought by
Qwest in 1999 and contributed to and renamed to
KPNQwest Germany in May 2000, which went bankrupt in the
Internet bubble crash of 2002. Remnants exist in
KPN
Koninklijke KPN N.V. (Royal KPN N.V. in English), trading as KPN is a Dutch List of telephone operating companies, telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterda ...
Eurorings.
References
External links
History of XLINK(in German)
Internet in Germany
Internet service providers
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