JANET

Janet is a private UK government-funded computer network dedicated to research and education. All further- and higher-education organisations in the UK are connected to Janet, as are all the Research Councils; the majority of these sites are connected via 20 metropolitan area networks (though Janet refers to these as Regional Networks, emphasising that Janet connections are not just confined to a metropolitan area) across the UK. The network also carries traffic between schools within the UK, although many of the schools' networks maintain their own general Internet connectivity. The name was originally a contraction of Joint Academic NETwork but it is now known as Janet in its own right.

The network is linked to other European and worldwide NRENs through GEANT and peers extensively with other ISPs at Internet Exchange Points in the UK. Any other networks are reached via transit services from commercial ISPs using Janet's Peering Policy.

The Janet network is operated by Janet, whose legal name is Janet(UK), was previously known as UKERNA (the United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association). Janet is also responsible for the .ac.uk and .gov.uk domains. It is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).