 | |
 | |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Stichting |
| Purpose | Free Software Network Research and Development in the Domain of Internet technology |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam Science Park |
Region served | Worldwide |
| Website | nlnet |
TheNLnet Foundation supports organizations and people that contribute to an open information society. It was influential in spreading theInternet throughout Europe in the 1980s. In 1997, the foundation sold off its commercial networking operations toUUNET (now part ofVerizon), resulting in an endowment with which it makes grants.
NLnet is known for sponsoring open source software and standards work as well as auxiliary activities. Some of the projects that NLnet supports or has supported areMastodon,[1]Peertube,[2]Galene,[3]Wireguard,[4]DNSSEC,[5][6] theODF plugfest,[7] theGPL V3 license drafting process,[8]Tor anonymity network,[9]Namecoin,[10]Jitsi[11] andnftables.[12]
NLnet's history started in April 1982 with the announcement byTeus Hagen as chairman of a major initiative by the EuropeanUnix Users Group (EUUG) to develop and provide network services in Europe under the nameEUnet. NLnet was the main node of the EUnet[13] operating out of the Netherlands national center for mathematics and computer scienceCWI, and played a vital role in spreading firstUUCP[14] and later theARPAnet throughout Europe,[15] earning Hagen and other pioneers a place in theInternet Hall of Fame. NLnet also pioneered the world's first dial-in and ISDN infrastructure with full country coverage[16] by using the signal wiring[17][18] from the Netherlands rail system owned byNederlandse Spoorwegen. NLnet was one of the founders of theAMS-ix[19] foundation and the.nl registry SIDN.[20]
Stichting NLnet was formally established as aStichting (Dutch for foundation) in February 1989. In November 1994 Stichting NLnet created NLnet BV (a Dutch Limited liability corporation orBV) as a commercial operating subsidiary and so incorporated the first Internet service provider in The Netherlands. In 1997 the Internet provision services company was acquired byUUnet,[21] which had just become a subsidiary ofMFS.[22] MFS was acquired shortly thereafter byWorldcom,[23] which then initiated a takeover bid onMCI and later became a subsidiary ofVerizon.
The acquisition provided Stichting NLnet with an endowment to transform into a grant-making organization, funding the development of Internet network technology and associated Computer Sciences research and development. The foundation is a recognized public benefit organization (in DutchANBI) and runs an open call where anyone in the world can submit proposals to improve the Internet,[24] as well as several thematic funds[25] such as the Internet Hardening Fund.[26] Results are made freely available to the community in the broadest sense, typically underFOSS licenses and throughInternet standards,web standards and the like.
In 1999, NLNet foundedNLnet Labs, a network research laboratory inAmsterdam. NLNet Labs develops DNS-related software, such asNSD,Unbound,OpenDNSSEC, getDNS as well asBGP related tooling such as Rotonda[27] and Krill.[28]
