Sources

Everything on this site comes from the published record of the NSFNET project. The materials below are the main sources so the information can be verified against the document it came from.

Each source is given twice: as a live link, and as an archived snapshot taken from the Internet Archive. Where no snapshot could be found, that is stated rather than passed over.

Primary sources

• NSFNET: A Partnership for High-Speed Networking, Final Report 1987-1995 Merit Network · archived The definitive account, researched and written by Karen D. Frazer for the organization that operated the backbone. Includes the program's own chronology and extensive interviews with the people involved.
• Retiring the NSFNET Backbone Service: Chronicling the End of an Era Merit Network · archived Contemporaneous documentation of the 1995 decommissioning and the handover to commercial providers, written by Susan R. Harris and Elise Gerich for ConneXions and reprinted by Merit.
• NSFNET: The Partnership that Changed the World (2007) University of Michigan · archived The twentieth-anniversary program book, archived in the University of Michigan's Deep Blue repository.
• NSF.net domain record NSF.net The registration record for this domain, dated 31 March 2022.
• Review of NSFNET National Science Foundation, Office of Inspector General · archived April 1993. The Inspector General's review of the Foundation's administration of NSFNET, made at the request of Congressman Rick Boucher after his subcommittee's hearing, and printed with NSF's reply. Preserved after nsf.gov reorganized.
• Management of NSFNET: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Science U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology · archived 102d Congress, 2d Session, 12 March 1992. The hearing that put the questions the Inspector General's review then answered.
• The Fuzzball David L. Mills, University of Delaware · archived The author's own account of the software that routed the first NSFNET backbone.

Standards documents

• RFC 920: Domain Requirements Internet Engineering Task Force · archived October 1984. Defined the initial generic top-level domains, including .net.
• RFC 1093: The NSFNET Routing Architecture Internet Engineering Task Force · archived 1989.
• RFC 1133: Routing between the NSFNET and the DDN Internet Engineering Task Force · archived 1989.
• RFC 1436: The Internet Gopher Protocol Internet Engineering Task Force · archived March 1993. The specification, written by its authors at the University of Minnesota.
• RFC 1160: The Internet Activities Board Internet Engineering Task Force · archived 1990.
• RFC 1580: Guide to Network Resource Tools Internet Engineering Task Force · archived March 1994, published as FYI 23 by the EARN Association. A user's guide to the tools of the period, and the source of the Gopher client screen reproduced here.
• RFC 2622: Routing Policy Specification Language Internet Engineering Task Force · archived 1999. The descendant of the NSFNET Routing Arbiter's policy database.

Archives and institutional histories

• The internet: NSF impacts National Science Foundation · archived The Foundation's own account of its role.
• Special Report: The Internet — Changing the Way We Communicate National Science Foundation · archived Special Report on the internet, preserved after nsf.gov reorganized.
• Priscilla J. Huston, biographical note Rice University · archived Her own account of her career, and the source for the dates of her term at the National Science Foundation.
• North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) Merit Network · archived Merit's account of how the NSFNET Regional-Techs meetings became NANOG.
• NSFNET technical history IBM · archived One of the three original backbone partners.
• NCSA Mosaic project history National Center for Supercomputing Applications · archived
• S.1146, Scientific and Advanced-Technology Act of 1992 United States Congress · archived
• Dennis Jennings, Internet Hall of Fame Pioneer Internet Hall of Fame · archived Inductee profile.
• Stephen Wolff, Internet Hall of Fame Pioneer Internet Hall of Fame · archived Inductee profile.
• NSFNET history Living Internet · archived

Secondary accounts

• Brief history of the internet and related networks Internet Society · archived Historical archives of the early internet and its constituent networks.
• Celebrating 30 years of the Domain Name System Internet Society · archived On thirty years of the Domain Name System.
• The birth of the web CERN · archived On the birth of the web.
• The rise and fall of the Gopher protocol MinnPost · archived On the rise and fall of the Gopher protocol.

Corrections

Corrections are always welcome. If you have a document, a report, an RFC, anything that says otherwise, send it along and I’ll update accordingly.