XLINK originally was the eXterne Lokale Informatik-Netz Karlsruhe (the external connection of the computer science network of the universities in Karlsruhe, Germany).

It was created in 1984, when it offered one of the first 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...

 connections from Germany to the USA (via UUNET

UUNET

UUNET founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the nine Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was the first commercial Internet service provider...

), 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

RIPE

Réseaux IP Européens is a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet. The RIPE community’s objective is to ensure that the administrative and technical coordination necessary to maintain and develop the Internet continues...

 and of DENIC

DENIC

DENIC Verwaltungs- und Betriebsgesellschaft eG is the manager of the .de domain, the country-code top-level domain for Germany.In 2005, it was one of five bidders seeking to win contract to operate the .net contract offered by ICANN.- Etymology :...

; its autonomous system number (autnum) was AS517.

It was transformed into (part of) a company in 1993, and as such, competed with the UniDO ISP (incorporated as EUnet

EUnet

The roots of EUnet go back to 1982 and the first international UUCP connections. From a very loose collaboration of individual sites under the auspices of the EUUG , it evolved to the fully commercial entity EUnet International Ltd.In April 1998 the company was sold to Qwest Communications...

 Germany) for the title of first commercial Internet service provider in Germany.

It was bought by Qwest

Qwest

Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a large United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.On April...

 in 1999 and contributed to and renamed to KPNQwest

KPNQwest

KPNQwest was a telecommunications company equally owned by the Dutch national telecom operator KPN and Qwest Communications International Inc., the Internet communications company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado....

 Germany in May 2000, which went bankrupt in the Internet bubble crash of 2002. Remnants exist in KPN

KPN

KPN is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, including both 2G and 3G mobile operations...

Eurorings.