Talk:PSINet

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I could have sworn that PSINet began in 1986 or 1987. Can anybody confirm? I think 1989 is late. Considering their rival at the time (UUNET) was started in 1987. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Albyva (talk • contribs)

I found a couple of documents. One says, "…Mr. Schrader served as President and Chief Executive Officer of NYSERNet from January 1986 to December 1989." Another has Schrader saying, "In 1989, a long time friend, Martin Schoffstall, and I saw an opportunity to build a company to sell computer networking services…" When time permits I'll add those refs to the article, though I'd be happy to have someone beat me to it. —RandallJones 08:52, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Evidence of 1987 Formation

This website (http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3736) says the following;

1987 UUNET and PSINET are formed UUNET is formed by Rick Adams and PSINET is formed by Bill Schrader to provide commercial Internet access. At DARPA's request, Dan Lynch organizes the first Interop conference for information purposes and to bring vendors together to test product interoperability. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Albyva (talk • contribs) 18:31, 25 April 2007 (UTC).

2nd source mentioning PSI began in 1987 from Cybertelecom Federal Internet Law & Policy - An Educational Project URL: http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/internet_history80s.htm

1987: UUNET formed. PSINet formed.

As I dig deeper, what I'm finding is that NYSERNet which started in 1985 was running a private not-for-profit corporation created to foster science and education in New York State. In 1987, they deployed first statewide regional IP network. This was the first in a succession of high-performance networks built by NYSERNet, two of which resulted in commercial spin-offs. The spinoff in 1989 was PSINet. So technically, PSINet's birth year was 1989, although the foundation for its existance began in 1987.

[edit] NYSERNet History

NYSERNET (New York State Education and Research Network) was a non-profit IP network founded in 1985 by Bill Schrader and Marty Schoffstall. In 1989, they both left and founded Performance Systems International Inc.("PSI"), later renamed PSINet. All but two, as I recall, of the NYSERNet staff left to go to PSI. NYSERNet and PSI negotiated a contract for maintenance of the NYSERNet Network. PSI had that contract for several years.

So while it wasn't a spin off, per se, there was a definate relationship between the two. Legally, however, different companies, boards, ownerships.

I may have some supporting data that I can post at a later date. Cheers. 510Huntmar (talk) 21:43, 6 December 2007 (UTC)