BITNET as an Internet Domain

Once upon a timeslice, there was a network called BITNET. "Because It's Time", said its creators. And BITNET was formed, consisting largely of VM systems, the dearest operating system.

BITNET was based on IBM "NJE" (Network Job Entry) networking. This meant store-and-forward operation, which is great for files and e-mail, but not so good for interactive applications, though BITNET did support interactive messaging.

As cycles were burned, other networks sprang up having exciting virtual circuit and packet switching concepts. VM itself was and is a very progressive system and embraced the best of the new technologies, but BITNET languished in the land of store-and-forward.

Officially, BITNET wound down and ceased to exist. Before its demise, someone took a "snap shot" of what it looked like and created a usable map for Internet DNS. How come such a thing was never made a part of the real DNS of the Internet at large?

Somehow .bitnet as a domain never got registered. NJE and IP networking don't mix, but many believed it would still have been worth the effort to register .bitnet if only for the sake of the MX records (faciliates e-mail gatewaying). Then too, many BITNET sites also have direct IP connectivity.

This page last updated 2000-Dec-19 by Rick Troth.