History of the Internet

            It all began in1957 when the US government formed a military research agency to keep up with its cold war enemy, the Soviet Union, which had launched the first satellite, called Sputnik 1. The United States wanted to remain technologically ahead of the Soviet Union so it formed DARPA or Defense Advanced Research Project Agency whose scientist investigated new technologies.

            With new knowledge came new vulnerabilities. Worried about having to keep what they were investigating and learning all in one location, DARPA sought to protect the nation�s information by linking together computers so as to guard against losing al the information should a key computer fail. These connected computers formed the ARPAnet or Advanced Research Project Agency Network, which scientist also used to talk to one another and share files. This was the grandparent of the Internet as we know it today. The ARPAnet started with only four computers in 1969. today, over 95 million across the world form our Internet.

            The history of the Internet started even during the 19^th century. For example, the invention of telegraph by Cooke and Wheatstone in 1836 was the revolution of human telecommunication. Morse code which is the series of dots and dashes were used to communicate between humans. This is not a million miles away from how computers communicate via binary 0/1 data today. It was much slower. In 1858-1866, the invention of transatlantic cable which allowed direct instantaneous communication across the Atlantic and it was relevant with today�s cables which connect all continents and are still a main hub of telecommunication. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone. It�s relevant with internet today is telephone exchange provide the backbone of internet connections today. Modems provide Digital to audio conversion to allow computer to connect over the telephone network.

After the birth of Internet in 1969 commissioned by U S�s Department of Defense people communicate over a network with 15 nodes or 23 hosts on ARPAnet. Below are the stages of the development in internet history.

1971 - E-mail was invented

�         Provides a program to send messages across a distributed network.

�         Nowadays, email is still the main way of inter-person communication on the internet today.

1972

�         Computers can connect more freely and easily with the first public demonstration of ARPAnet between 40 machines.

�         Internet Working Group (INWG) was created to address need for establishing agreed upon protocols

1973 - Global networking became a reality.

�         First international connections to the ARPAnet were University College of London, England and Royal Radar Establishment, Norway.

�         It was the starting of the outline of Ethernet and this is how local network are basically connected today.

1974 - The Transmission Control Program (PCP) specified

�         Packet Network Intercommunication as the basis of Internet Communication.

1976 - Networking comes to many

�         Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) was developed at AT&T Bell Labs and distributed with UNIX.

�         Today, UNIX still the main operating system used by universities and research establishment. Networking exposed to many users worldwide.

1977 - Internet becomes a reality

�         TheoryNet provides electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science which using a locally developed e-mails system and Telenet for access to server.

�         It was also the date when the first demonstration of ARPAnet, Packet Radio Net and SATNET operation of internet protocols over gateways.

1979 - The News Groups born

�         Computer Sciences Department research computer network established in USA.

1981

�         Things start to come together when BITNET, the Because It�s Time Network started as a cooperative network at the City University of New York with the first connection to Yale.

�         It provides electronic mail and listserv servers to distribute in formation, as well as file transfers. CSNET Computer Science Network established to provide networking services especially e-mail to university scientists with no access to ARPAnet.

1982

�         DCA and ARPA establishes the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP for ARPAnet.

1983

�         Internet getting bigger when name server was developed. Large numbers of nodes are used in connecting through internet.

1984 - The growth of internet continues.

�          the number of hosts breaks to 1000 and the Domain Name Server was introduced.

�         For example instead of �123.456.789.10�, it is easier to remember something like www.myuniversity.mydept.mynetwork.mycountry or �www.cs.cf.ac.uk�.

�         Joint Academic Network (JANET) also established in UK and moderated newsgroup also had been introduced on USENET.

1986 - Power of Internet Realized

�         5, 000 Hosts. 241 News groups.

�         NSFNET created with 56 Kbps backbone speed.

�         NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide high-computing power for all -- This allows an explosion of connections, especially from universities.

�         Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) designed to enhance Usenet news performance over TCP/IP.

1987 - Commercialization of Internet Born

�         Number of hosts becomes 28,000.

�         UUNET is founded with Use nix funds to provide commercial UUCP and Usenet access.

1988

�         NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544 Mbps)

�         Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed

1989 - Large growth in Internet

�         Number of hosts breaks to 100,000

�         First relays between a commercial electronic mail carrier and the Internet

�         Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) comes into existence under the IAB

1990 - Expansion of Internet continues

�         300,000 Hosts. 1,000 News groups

�         ARPANET ceases to exist

�         Archie released files can be searched and retrieved (FTP) by name.

�         The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the first commercial provider of Internet dial-up access.

1991 - Modernization Begins

�         Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed after NSF lifts restrictions on the commercial use of the Net.

�         Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS).

• Provides a mechanism for indexing and accessing information on the Internet.
• Large bodies of knowledge available: E-mail messages, text, electronic books, Usenet articles, computer code, image, graphics, sound files and databases.
• These form the basis of the index of information we see on WWW today.
• Powerful search techniques implemented. (Keyword search)

1991 - Friendly User Interface to WWW established

�         Gopher released by Paul Lindner and Mark P. McCahill from the U of Minnesota. Text based, menu-driven interface to access internet resources.

�         No need to remember or even know complex computer command.

1991 - Most Important development to date

�         World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim Berners-Lee as the developer.

�         Originally developed to provide a distributed hypermedia system.

�         Easy access to any form information anywhere in the world.

�         NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736 Mbps). NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion packets/month

�         Start of JANET IP Service (JIPS) using TCP/IP within the UK academic network.

1992 - Multimedia changes the face of the Internet

�         Number of hosts breaks 1 Million. News groups 4,000

�         Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered.

�         First MBONE audio multicast (March) and video multicast (November).

�         The term "Surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly.

1993 - The WWW Revolution truly begins

�         Number of Hosts 2 Million. 600 WWW sites.

�         InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet services

o        directory and database services

o        registration services

o        information services

�         Business and Media really take notice of the Internet.

�         US White House and United Nations (UN) come on-line.

�         Mosaic takes the Internet by storm.

o        User Friendly Graphical Front End to the World Wide Web.

o        Develops into Netscape - most popular WWW browser to date.

o        WWW proliferates at a 341,634

1994 - Commercialization begins

�         Number of Hosts 3 Million. 10,000 WWW sites. 10,000 News groups.

�         ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary

�         Local communities begin to be wired up directly to the Internet (Lexington and Cambridge, Mass., USA)

�         US Senate and House provide information servers

�         Shopping malls, banks arrive on the Internet

o        A new way of life

o        You can now order pizza from the Hut online in the US.

o        First Virtual, the first cyber bank, open up for business

�         NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month

�         WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd most popular service on the Net (behind ftp-data) based on % of packets and bytes traffic distribution on NSFNET

1995 - Commercialization continues apace

�         6.5 Million Hosts, 100,000 WWW Sites.

�         NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main US backbone traffic now routed through interconnected network providers

�         WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as the service with greatest traffic on NSFNET based on packet count, and in April based on byte count

�         Traditional online dial-up systems (CompuServe, America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access

�         A number of Net related companies go public, with Netscape leading the pack.

�         Registration of domain names is no longer free.

�         Technologies of the Year: WWW, Search engines (WAIS development).

�         New WWW technologies Emerge Technologies

o        Mobile code (Java, JavaScript, ActiveX),

o        Virtual environments (VRML),

o        Collaborative tools (CU-SeeMe)

1996 - Microsoft enter

�         12.8 Million Hosts, 0.5 Million WWW Sites.

�         Internet phones catch the attention of US telecommunication companies who ask the US Congress to ban the technology (which has been around for years)

�         The WWW browser war begins, fought primarily between Netscape and Microsoft, has rushed in a new age in software development, whereby new releases are made quarterly with the help of Internet users eager to test upcoming (beta) versions.

Nowadays, more than 100,000 new web sites were established per month. In US, more than 50% of the household are using the internet. Not just in US, people all around the world from all walks of life are using internet.