CSNET

CSNET (the "Computer Science Network") was funded by the National Science Foundation in the early 1980s. It was a computer network linking academic Computer Science departments nationwide. It was an alternative to ARPANET, to which many Computer Science departments did not have access. CSNET connected with ARPANET using the TCP/IP protocol, and ran TCP/IP over X.25, but it also supported departments without sophisticated network connections, using automated dial-up mail exchange. It was a forerunner to NSFNet.

CSNET operated autonomously until 1989, when it merged with Bitnet to form CREN. By 1991 the growth of the Internet had made the CSNET services redundant, and CREN discontinued them.