CSNET
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CSNET (the "Computer Science Network") was created by the US National Science Foundation in the early 1980s. It was a computer network linking academic Computer Science departments nationwide. It was an alternative to ARPANET, to which many Computer Science departments didn't have the privilege of access. CSNET connected with ARPANET using TCP/IP, and ran TCP/IP over X.25, but it also supported departments without sophisticated network connections, using automated dial-up mail exchange. It was a forerunner to NSFNET. CSNET operated autonomously until 1989, when it merged with Bitnet to form CREN. By 1991 the growth of the Internet had made the CSNET services redundant, and CREN discontinued them.