Internet Systems Consortium

Internet Systems Consortium
Founded 1994
Founder
Type Network Engineering
Focus DNS, BIND, Internet
Location
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
 Jeff Osborn (President)
Employees
20+
Website www.isc.org
Formerly called
 Internet Software Consortium

Internet Systems Consortium, Inc., also known as ISC, is a Delaware-registered, 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that supports the infrastructure of the universal, self-organizing Internet by developing and maintaining core production-quality software, protocols, and operations.[1][2] ISC has developed several key Internet technologies that enable the global Internet, including: BIND, ISC DHCP, OpenReg, and ISC AFTR (an implementation of an IPv4/IPv6 transition protocol based on Dual-Stack Lite, which is under development by several large ISPs within the IETF protocol standards-development process).

ISC operates one of the 13 global authoritative DNS root servers, F-root.[3][4]

Over the years a number of additional software systems were operated under ISC (for example: INN and Lynx) to better support the Internet's infrastructure. ISC also expanded their operational activities to include Internet hosting facilities for other open-source projects such as NetBSD, XFree86, kernel.org, secondary name-service (SNS) for more than 50 top-level domains, and a DNS OARC (Operations, Analysis and Research Center) for monitoring and reporting of the Internet's DNS.

ISC is actively involved in community design process; it authors and participates in the development of the IETF standards, including the production of managed open-source software used as a reference implementation of the DNS.

History

Originally the company was founded as the Internet Software Consortium, Inc. The founders included Paul Vixie, Rick Adams and Carl Malamud. The intention of this corporation was to be to continue the development of BIND software. The founders believed that it was necessary for BIND's maintenance and development be managed and funded by an independent organization. ISC was designated as a root name server operator by IANA, originally as NS.ISC.ORG and later as F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.

In January 2004, ISC reorganized under the new name Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.[5]

In July 2013, ISC spun off their Security Business Unit to Farsight Security, Inc. a new company started by ISC founder Paul Vixie.[6]

Internet

ISC develops and maintains open source networking software, including BIND and two DHCP implementations. ISC also distributes INN and several older, unmaintained projects.[1] Some aspects of its software have, in the past, been developed by developers that are commercially employed by Nominum.[7]

ISC license

Main article: ISC license

ISC developed and uses the ISC license which is functionally similar to the simplified BSD and MIT licenses. The ISC license is OpenBSD's preferred license for new code.

DNS root server

ISC operates the DNS "F" root server,[1] the first such server to be distributed using anycast. In 2007 it was announced that ISC and ICANN would sign an agreement regarding the operation of F, the first such agreement made between ICANN and a root-server operator.[8]

Usenet moderators list

ISC maintains and publishes (on ftp.isc.org) the central Usenet moderators list and relays for moderated groups so individual server operators don't have to track moderator changes.[9]

Internet Domain Survey

Number of Internet hosts worldwide: 1970–2015
Source: Internet Systems Consortium, Internet Domain Survey.[10]

The Internet Domain Survey searches the Domain Name System (DNS) to discover every Internet host. The survey began when only a few hundred hosts were Internet linked.[11] The earliest published reports dated 1993 were performed by Network Wizards owner Mark K. Lottor. The Internet host count was 1,313,000 in January 1993 and 818,374,269 in the latest January 2011 survey.[12]

ISC is the current sponsor and publisher with technical operations subcontracted to Network Wizards.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The History of ISC". Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  2. ↑ Internal Revenue Service (2007-12-15). "501(c)(3) exemption letter" (PDF). Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  3. ↑ "F-root". Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
  4. ↑ "ISC and ICANN F-root Agreement". ICANN. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
  5. ↑ "ISC Mission". Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  6. ↑ "ISC Spins Off Its Security Business Unit". Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved 2013-07-11.
  7. ↑ "Nominum Inc history". David Conrad founded Nominum in 1999develop BIND9 and ISC DHCP3 for the Internet Software Consortium
  8. ↑ "Milestone Agreement Reached Between ICANN, and F Root Server Operator, Internet Systems Consortium". ICANN. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
  9. ↑ Usenet Hierarchy FAQ Section 4
  10. ↑ "Internet host count history". Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  11. 1 2 "ISC Internet Domain Survey". Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  12. ↑ "Internet Domain Survey, January 2011". Internet Systems Consortium. Retrieved 2011-06-10.

External links

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