Janet and Jisc
What is Janet, and what does a Janet IP connection include?
Janet is the UK’s national research and education network, run by Jisc. Many colleges and universities reach the internet through it. Here is what a Janet IP connection includes, what costs extra, and how Jisc’s managed router fits in.
On this page
At a glance
- Janet is the UK’s national research and education network (NREN), run by Jisc — Jisc says it serves 6 million users a day.
- A Janet IP connection gives access to the internet and Jisc services, with DDoS mitigation, CSIRT support, DNS protection and IP addresses packaged in.
- Jisc says there are no hard traffic limits or bursting charges; extra bandwidth or a resilience connection costs extra, plus VAT.
- Jisc’s managed router service supports 1G, 2×1G, 10G or 2×10G connections and is included in FE and HE membership.
Janet in a nutshell
Janet is the UK’s national research and education network — an “NREN”. It is run by Jisc, the UK’s digital, data and technology agency for tertiary education and research. Colleges and universities connect to Janet, and Janet connects them to each other, to the wider internet and to other research networks around the world.
By Jisc’s own figures, Janet:
- serves 6 million users a day across education and research;
- has 600+ direct “peerings” — direct links to other education and research networks, to cloud providers including Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Apple, and to content providers such as the BBC, Facebook, Netflix and Akamai;
- carries connections ranging from “a smaller institution running 1Gbits/s” to “a research-intensive organisation connected at 100Gbits/s”.
What a Janet IP connection is
A Janet IP connection is one or more connections to Janet that give your organisation access to the global internet and to Jisc’s services. Jisc says it comes with:
- capacity headroom “over and above the capacity you require”;
- no hard traffic limits or bursting charges;
- a fully resilient backbone — and the option of adding local resilience with an extra connection, which gets the same security services.
These services are packaged with it:
- Foundation DDoS mitigation — see DDoS protection and Jisc’s CSIRT;
- the Janet CSIRT (incident response team);
- the Janet network resolver (“advanced DNS protection”);
- primary and secondary nameservers;
- IP address assignment, including IPv6.
Jisc says the service is covered by its ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certificates.
What’s included in membership, and what costs extra
For further education members, Jisc’s catalogue lists the Janet IP connection (with IP address assignment, IPv6 and Netsight) as included — but “additional bandwidth or resilience connections are extra and VAT is payable”. The higher education catalogue says the same.
How you get one
- Eligible research and education organisations connect by becoming Jisc members — see Jisc membership.
- Existing members can add connections, for example to another campus.
- Some other organisations (not-for-profit, public sector or research-linked) may connect as customers.
Who counts as eligible is set out in the Janet connection policy.
The managed router service
Jisc can fully manage the router that connects your site to Janet. Jisc describes this as “particularly appropriate for FE, smaller organisations and perhaps organisation supported by small IT teams”. It supports connections at 1Gbit/s, 2×1Gbit/s, 10Gbit/s and 2×10Gbit/s.
| What | Jisc managed router service |
|---|---|
| Hardware support | Same business day (4 hours + 1), subject to site access |
| Configuration changes | Up to five requests a year |
| Resilience (dual power, dual chassis, resilient circuits) | Available at extra cost |
| In FE and HE membership | Included (additional connections extra) |
Where to go next
- Jisc membership: what it costs and includes
- Resilience and backup lines
- Work out a rough minimum speed with our bandwidth estimator.
Sources
Checked 25 October 2026. We wrote this guide from these sources, in our own words:
- Jisc: Janet network (jisc.ac.uk)
- Jisc: Janet IP connection (jisc.ac.uk)
- Jisc: Managed router service (jisc.ac.uk)
- Jisc: Catalogue of services for further education (jisc.ac.uk)
- Jisc: Catalogue of services for higher education (jisc.ac.uk)
Broadband for Education is an independent guide. It is not a broker or a supplier, and it is not owned by, or connected to, Jisc, any network provider, framework or government body. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.