NYSERNet (New York State Education and Research Network) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. It mainly provides Internet access to universities, colleges, museums, health care facilities, primary and secondary schools, and research institutions. History NYSERNet was founded in 1986 in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...

. Its founders compared NYSERNet's network with the Erie Canal and considered it the next step in two centuries to draw the country together.(1) It was the original assignee of AS174 according to RFC1117. This ASN is used today by

Cogent Communications Cogent Communications is a multinational internet service provider based in the United States. Cogent's primary services consist of Internet access and data transport, offered on a fiber optic, IP data-only network, along with colocation in data ...

for their global network. NYSERNet's network reaches from Buffalo to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Completed in 1987, it was the first statewide regional IP network in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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Sources

# National Geographic November 1990 Erie Canal: Living Link to Our Past. Page 46

External links

NYSERNet homepage
Computer networks 1987 establishments in New York (state) {{telecom-company-stub