UUNET
Encyclopedia
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
and one of the nine Tier 1 network
Tier 1 network
A tier 1 network is an Internet Protocol network that participates in the Internet solely via settlement-free interconnection, also known as settlement-free peering.-Definition:...
s. It was based in Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...
and was the first commercial Internet service provider. Today, UUNET is an internal brand of Verizon Business
Verizon Business
Verizon Business is one of three operating units of Verizon Communications It was created in 2006 when Verizon Communications closed on its merger with MCI, Inc..Verizon Business has over 30,000 employees with 321 offices in 75 countries...
(formerly MCI
MCI Inc.
MCI, Inc. is an American telecommunications subsidiary of Verizon Communications that is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia...
).
Background
Prior to its founding, access to UsenetUsenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
and E-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
exchange from non-ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
sites was accomplished using a cooperative network of systems running the UUCP
UUCP
UUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, a command named uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it...
protocol over POTS
Plain old telephone service
Plain old telephone service is the voice-grade telephone service that remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world....
lines. During the mid-1980s, growth of this network began to put considerable strain on the resources voluntarily provided by the larger UUCP
UUCP
UUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, a command named uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it...
hub
Node (networking)
In communication networks, a node is a connection point, either a redistribution point or a communication endpoint . The definition of a node depends on the network and protocol layer referred to...
s. This prompted Rick Adams
Rick Adams (Internet pioneer)
Richard L. Adams, Jr. was an Internet pioneer and the founder of UUNET, which, in the mid and late 1990s, was the world's largest Internet Service Provider ....
, a system administrator at the Center for Seismic Studies, to explore the possibilities of providing these services commercially as a way to reduce the burden on the existing hubs.
Early existence
With funding in the form of a loan from UsenixUSENIX
-External links:* *...
, UUNET Communications Services began operations in 1987 as a non-profit corporation providing Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
feeds, E-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
exchange and access to a large repository of software source code and related information. The venture proved successful and shed its non-profit status within two years. At the same time, the company changed its name to UUNET Technologies. In 1990, UUNET launched its AlterNet service, which provided access to an IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
backbone independent of the constraints of those operated by the government. That network lives on in a much larger form and serves as the core of a set of products which include access at dial-up and broadband speeds as well as web hosting.
In the mid 1990s, UUNET was the fastest-growing ISP, outpacing MCI and Sprint. At its peak, Internet traffic was doubling every few months, which translates to 10x growth each year. The public disclosures of this growth substantially fueled the expectations of the dot.com and telecom companies of the late 1990s, leading to the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
and crash in 2000/2001.
Mergers and acquisitions
In 1996, UNNET was acquired by MFS.In 1996, UUNET was acquired by WorldCom as part of WorldCom's purchase of MFS Communications Company.
In 2001, UUNET was fully integrated with WorldCom and the name was dropped from all official documents.
In 2002, the owner of UUNET at that time (WorldCom) filed for what was then the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in history.
In the late 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
, UUNET was known as a haven for hosts who send large quantities of spam. In the early 2000s, UUNET took several measures to reduce the amount of spam that traverses its global backbone.
, its Internet service and infrastructure, assigned AS701
Autonomous system (Internet)
Within the Internet, an Autonomous System is a collection of connected Internet Protocol routing prefixes under the control of one or more network operators that presents a common, clearly defined routing policy to the Internet....
maintained the highest outdegree of any ISP.
Verizon
In 2006, WorldCom was purchased by Verizon CommunicationsVerizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
and now operates under the Verizon Business
Verizon Business
Verizon Business is one of three operating units of Verizon Communications It was created in 2006 when Verizon Communications closed on its merger with MCI, Inc..Verizon Business has over 30,000 employees with 321 offices in 75 countries...
name.
SpewSpewNet
After it had been sold and resold during the onset of the dot-com bubbleDot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
, UUNET acquired the nickname SpewSpewNET. This nickname was given because UUNET had become a home for many distributors of spam
Spam (electronic)
Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately...
, including distributors of both Newsgroup spam
Newsgroup spam
Newsgroup spam is a type of spam where the targets are Usenet newsgroups.Spamming of Usenet newsgroups actually pre-dates e-mail spam. The first widely recognized Usenet spam was posted on 18 January 1994 by Clarence L. Thomas IV, a sysadmin at Andrews University...
and E-mail spam
E-mail spam
Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email , is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. One subset of UBE is UCE...
. UUNET also became known for providing bulletproof hosting
Bulletproof hosting
Bulletproof hosting is a service provided by some domain hosting or web hosting firms that allows their customer considerable leniency in the kinds of material they may upload and distribute...
to many web page
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
s whose chief form of advertisement was spam. Because UUNET started with a loan from Usenix
USENIX
-External links:* *...
and controlled the e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
addresses for moderated Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
groups, it was hard to block email traffic to or from Usenet. In 1997, UUNET had lost so much credit that on August 1, after finding alternate routes for moderated newsgroups, a Usenet death penalty
Usenet Death Penalty
On Usenet, the Usenet Death Penalty is a final penalty that may be issued against Internet service providers or single users who produce too much spam or fail to adhere to Usenet standards...
(UDP) was issued against UUNET. A week later, the UDP was lifted. In 1998 UUNET threatened legal action for hosting a GIF
GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....
with "SPAMUNET" on it.
Timeline
- 1987 - UUNET Communications Services is founded and passes its first traffic via the CompuServeCompuServeCompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
Network on May 12 using UUCPUUCPUUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, a command named uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it...
(Unix to Unix Copy Protocol). - 1989 - UUNET becomes a for-profit corporation
- 1990 - UUNET launches AlterNet
- 1991 - UUNET participates in the founding of the Commercial Internet Exchange Association
- 1994 - MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
paid $16.4 million for a 15 percent share of the company - 1995 - In May, UUNET is listed on the NASDAQNASDAQThe NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
stock market in an initial public offeringInitial public offeringAn initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
that would become part of the beginning of the dot-com boom. - 1995 - UUNET Technologies Inc places a takeover bid against Unipalm Pipex.
- 1996 - UUNET Technologies agreed to a merger with the Microsoft backed MSF Communications Company.
- 1996 - Metropolitan Fiber SystemsMetropolitan Fiber SystemsMetropolitan Fiber Systems Inc, later known as MFS Communications Company, was a last mile provider of business grade telecommunication products such as long distance, and Internet access through its own fiber rings in major central business districts throughout North America and Europe...
(MFS) acquires UUNET for $2 Billion - 1996 - WorldCom acquires MFS on New Year's Eve - Dec. 31st at 11:58 p.m EST for $12.4 billion
- 1997 - Usenet death penaltyUsenet Death PenaltyOn Usenet, the Usenet Death Penalty is a final penalty that may be issued against Internet service providers or single users who produce too much spam or fail to adhere to Usenet standards...
(UDP) issued against UUNET, and lifted a week later - 1997 - On November 10, WorldCom and MCIMCI Inc.MCI, Inc. is an American telecommunications subsidiary of Verizon Communications that is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia...
announced their US$37 billion merger including combining internetMCI & UUNET Internet operations. - 1998 - The combined MCI WorldCom opens for business on September 15 after being given the go-ahead from the DOJUnited States Department of JusticeThe United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, subsequent to divesting internetMCI. - 1998 - WorldCom acquires CompuServe Network Services from H&R BlockH&R BlockH&R Block is a tax preparation company in the United States, claiming more than 22 million customers worldwide, with offices in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The Kansas City-based company also offers banking, personal finance and business consulting services.Founded in 1955 by brothers...
and ANS Communications from AOLAOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
. Both become part of UUNET in 1999. - 1999 - On October 5, MCI Worldcom announces its intentions to buy Sprint for $129 billion.
- 2000 - The European CommissionEuropean CommissionThe European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
and DOJUnited States Department of JusticeThe United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
denied the MCI WorldCom / Sprint merger on Anti-Trust Grounds. - 2000 - The UUNET brand is folded into WorldCom's product line and disappears
- 2003 - The UUNET brand re-emerges as WorldCom's wholesale-only brand
- 2004 - WorldCom renames itself to MCIMCI Inc.MCI, Inc. is an American telecommunications subsidiary of Verizon Communications that is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia...
, still using the UUNET brand for wholesale business. - 2005 - MCI again drops the UUNET brand for wholesale business. The name is no longer in use.
- 2006 - Verizon acquires MCI, including its UUNET subsidiary, now known as Verizon Business. AS701 remains the backbone of Verizon Business although its origin dates back to 1990 when it was under the UUNET flag.
External links
- UUNET (redirects to Verizon)
- Tim O'Reilly discusses UUNET as an open source-derived business. Includes some history.
- Discussions about UUNET spam in [news:news.admin.net-abuse.email news:news.admin.net-abuse.email].
- Usenet message in comp.org.usenix announcing UUNET creation (Jan 29 1987)
- Estimated spam Business on UUNET