BITNET
<networking> /bit'net/ (Because It's Time NETwork) An academic and
research computer network connecting approximately 2500 computers. BITNET
provides interactive, electronic mail and file transfer services, using a store
and forward protocol, based on IBM Network Job Entry protocols.
Bitnet-II encapsulates the Bitnet protocol within IP packets and depends on the
Internet to route them. BITNET traffic and Internet traffic are exchanged via
several gateway hosts.
BITNET is now operated by CREN.
BITNET is everybody's least favourite piece of the network. The BITNET hosts are
a collection of IBM dinosaurs, VAXen (with lobotomised communications hardware),
and Prime Computer supermini computers. They communicate using 80-character
EBCDIC card images (see eighty-column mind); thus, they tend to mangle the
headers and text of third-party traffic from the rest of the ASCII/RFC 822 world
with annoying regularity. BITNET is also notorious as the apparent home of BIFF.
[Jargon File]
(2002-09-02)
Nearby terms:
bitmap font « bitmapped display « bit mask «
BITNET » bitonal image » bit-paired keyboard »
bit pattern
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