FIX (Federal Internet Exchange)
The two meeting points where US government networks swapped traffic around 1990.
As ARPANET wound down there were several parallel federal networks: NSFNET, the military's MILNET, the Department of Energy's ESnet and the NASA Science Internet. In 1989 two interconnection points were set up for them: FIX-East at the University of Maryland in College Park and FIX-West at NASA Ames in California. In practice they were among the first internet exchange points.
The catch was in the name. FIX was for federal networks, and commercial traffic had no business there. Which is precisely why commercial providers built their own meeting places, like the Commercial Internet Exchange and MAE-East — often not far down the road.