Internet History
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What is the Internet?

The Internet is a large collection of computers all over the world that are connected to one another in various ways. The Internet is one of the most amazing technological advancements ever.

On the Internet you can find the following resources and tools:

  • Periodicals,  documents, research reports
  • E-mail
  • Downloadable software applications
  • Discussion groups
  • Chat
  • Interactive Games
  • Shopping

 There are a variety of ways that computers can be connected to a network. The most common way is through a Network Interface Card (NIC) card installed on the computer's motherboard.  Computers that are connected to each other over a 30 mile or less radius are part of a Local Area Network (LAN). All of RVCC's computers are connected together to form a fairly complex LAN. The Internet is a Wide Area Network (WAN) as it encompasses the entire world.

History of the Internet

The Internet began as a cold war military project in the 1960s. The Department of Defense (DOD) wanted to make sure that if a nuclear attack decimated this country, surviving officials could still communicate. A network was needed that could not be centralized. If it were centralized, then the "Commies" would target that site, effectively destroying the network.

The word Internet means "collection of networks." It would take a collection of networks to keep communications alive the post apocalypse. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was charged with the task of decentralizing.

1966 –

  • Paul Baran of the Rand corporation came to the conclusion that a packet switched network would best suit the military’s needs. Baran had been commissioned by the air force to research this topic. Packet switching involves breaking down data into tiny packets. Each packet takes a different route through the network and is reassembled at the other end in the correct order. Routers at different locations determine the path of each packet on a packet by packet basis using routing algorithms.
  • By this time, users had been able to timeshare on a mainframe. If connected to a dumb terminal, both users could access the computer at the same time. This idea led to the feasibility of a global network. The main roadblock was the telephone system used to connect the computers, not the fact that the machines used different operating systems. Thus, dedicated lines had to be used to connect the computers together. Modems would have to wait a little longer. During this time, computers could only communicate through leased telephone lines. Once a connection was established, all data traveled down the single path. This technology was called circuit switching.

1969 —

  • Baran’s dream becomes a reality. ARPANET goes online with four machines connected by wires.
  • The machines were connected at UCLA, Stanford Research Institute, UCSB, and the University of Utah.
  • The machines used agreed upon protocols in order to communicate. Other wise there would have been no way for the computers to understand/interpret the data sent to them.
  • Use of Interface Message Processors (IMP) [Honeywell 516 mini computer with 12K of memory] developed by Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN)

1973 —

  • Vinton Cerf of Stanford writes a new Internet communications protocol, TCP/IP. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol cleared up problems evident in the first ARPANET. In the first ARPANET, there were no concessions in case one computer could not communicate with the other. TCP includes rules that computers on a network use to establish and break connections; IP includes rules for routing of individual data packets.

A poem written by Cerf

Like distant islands sundered by the sea,

We had no sense of one community.

We lived and worked apart and rarely knew

That others searched with us for knowledge too.
 

Distant ARPA spurred us in our quest

And for our part we worked and put to test

New thoughts and theories of computing ar;

We deemed it science not, but made a start.
 
 

But could these new resources not be shared?

Let links be built; machines and men be paired!

Let distance be no barrier! They set

That goal: design and build the ARPANET.
 
 

15 nodes and 23 hosts online
 
 

Nodes:

  1. UCLA
  2. Stanford Research Institute
  3. UCSB
  4. U. of Utah
  5. BBN
  6. MIT
  7. Rand Corp.
  8. SDC
  9. Harvard
  10. Lincoln Lab.
  11. Stanford
  12. U. of Illinois, Urbana
  13. Case Western Research U.
  14. Carnegie Mellon
  15. NASA-Ames

Around this time E-mail became very popular. This came as a surprise to many whom believed the Internet would be great for sharing research. Even 25 years ago, people were communicating informally via networks in the same relaxed writing style as today.

1974 —

  • 62 hosts on ARPANET
  • Cerf coins the term 'Internet'

1976  --

  • Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom sends out an e-mail
  • Packets sent via satellite for first time

1979 --

  • USENET established using UUCP between Duke and UNC by Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis, and Steve Bellovin.

1981--

  • Arpanet expands to include over 200 networks.

1983 —

  • The University of Washington came up with the idea of the Domain Name Server. This allowed users to type in the name of the computer they wanted to connect to rather than the IP address.
  • 500 computers on Arpanet.
  • ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET; the latter became integrated with the Defense Data Network created the previous year.

1984—

  • The National Science Foundation gets into the act of networking. They wanted to set up super computing centers where people could purchase time for research. The NSF infrastructure was upgraded more often than was ARPANETs. Soon the NSFNET overtook the ARPANET as far as its importance in the current world of networking.
  • The NSF decided to let the corporate world continue its infrastructure upgrading. Companies like MCI and IBM provided the new equipment. Soon the NSF’s backbone was running T1 lines, 1.544 mbps. At this point ARPANET was still running at 56K.
  • More sites began coming online since speed was faster. By the end of 1984 there were 1,024 computers on NSFNET/ARPANET.
  • Number of hosts breaks 1,000
  • Moderated newsgroups introduced on USENET (mod.*)

1985 –

  • America Online goes online.
  • On March 15th, Symbolics.com is assigned the first registered domain. Other firsts: cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, ucla.edu (April); css.gov (June); mitre.org, .uk (July)

1986--

  • Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meets for the first time. The IETF is a self organized group that makes technical contributions to the engineering of the Internet and its technologies. Today the IETF is the main body that develops new Internet standards.

1987 –

  • 10,000 computers on the Internet

1988 –

  • The first transatlantic fiber optic cable linking North America to Europe is completed.
  • Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed by Jarkko Oikarinen
  • The Internet Worm virus affects 6,000 of the 60,000 computers on the Internet. The virus replicates itself on the user's computer until all processing power is sucked up.

1989 –

  • 100,000 computers on the Internet
  • Countries connecting to NSFNET: Australia (AU), Germany (DE), Israel (IL), Italy (IT), Japan (JP), Mexico (MX),Netherlands (NL), New Zealand (NZ), Puerto Rico (PR), United Kingdom (UK)
  • NSF allows two commercial firms, MCI Mail and Compuserve, access to Internet E-mail so members can communicate with academia.

1990 –

  • The Arpanet fades away into nothing.
  • The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the first commercial provider of Internet dial-up access
  • Countries connecting to NSFNET: Argentina (AR), Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Brazil (BR), Chile (CL), Greece (GR), India (IN), Ireland (IE), Korea (KR), Spain (ES), Switzerland (CH)

1991 –

  • 600,000 computers on the Internet.
  • World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim Berners-Lee developer
  • NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps)

1992 –

  • 1,000,000 computers on the Internet
  • The term "Surfing the Net" is first used by Jean Armour Polly

1993 –

  • Mosaic, the first Web browser, is released.
  • Web traffic accounts for .1% of all Internet traffic.
  • 2,000,000 computers on the Internet
  • InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet services:
    • directory and database services (AT&T)
    • registration services (Network Solutions Inc.)
    • information services (General Atomics/CERFnet)

1994 –

  • The Web shows 341,634% annual growth.
  • Web traffic accounts for 1% of all Internet traffic.
    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
  • The First Cyberbank, First Virtual, opens its cyber doors.
    http://ahimsa.guppylake.com/~nsb/Nathaniel.html
  • Mark Andreeson and Jim Clark form Mosaic Communications. Mosaic would later become Netscape.
  • 3,000,000 computers on the Internet.
  • Network Solutions Inc. Reports that it is registering 2,000 domain names a month.
  • In August, AOL hits the one million member mark.

1995—

  • The NSF decides it will no longer allow access to its backbone. It would sell its backbone to major companies who would in turn sell connections to the public. This allowed the NSF, a government organization, to leave the networking business they never intended to be a part of, and allowed the huge growth in Internet commercialization that we’ve seen in recent years. While the NSF was running the show, commercialization was kept to a minimum due to government regulations. By the end of the year, most Fortune 500 Companies would have their own Web sites.
  • 5,000,000 computers on the Internet.
  • It is no longer free to register domain names with Network Solutions. The costs are now $100 for the first two years and $50 for each additional year. In 1998, it was found that 30% of the funds collected constituted an illegal tax.
  • RealAudio, an audio streaming technology, lets the Net hear in near real-time
  • Traditional online dial-up systems (Compuserve, America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access.
  • 6/95--23,500 Websites 

1996:

  • The Communications Decency Act is passed. It would later be found unconstitutional because of its inability to define what is and is not decent.
  • 9,000,000 computers on the Internet.
  • MCI’s backbone is upgraded to 622MBPS.
  • Network Solutions drops 9,000 domain names from its database after repeated attempts to collect payment from the names’ owners.
  • The WWW browser war, 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.
  • 12/96--603,367 Websites

1997:

  • More than 16,000,000 computers on the Internet
  • 1/97--646,162 Websites
  • By November, AOL signs up its 10 millionth member.

1998:

  • The government announces that it will be leaving the Internet business. This means that Network Solutions will no longer be the only company to allocate domain names. As a result, the cost for domain names drop as companies such as register.com begin to vie with Network Solutions for business. http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=domain+registration
  • More than 60,000,000 computers on the Internet
  • America On-line hits 15,000,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
  • Network Solutions registers its 2 millionth domain on May 4.
  • Compaq pays $3.3 million for altavista.com
  • Top 10 Domains by Host #: com, net, edu, mil, jp, us, uk ,de, ca, au
  • 7/98--36,739,000 Computer Hosts 
  • 1/98--1,834,710  Websites
  • 12/98--3,689,227 Websites

1999:

  • A forged Web page made to look like a Bloomberg financial news story raised shares of a small technology company by 31% on April 7.
  • ICANN announces the five testbed registrars for the competitive Shared Registry System on April 21:
    • AOL
    • CORE
    • France Telecom/Oléane
    • Melbourne IT
    • Register.com.

    29 additional post-testbed registrars are also selected on April 21, followed by 8 on  May 25, 15 on July 6, and so on for a total of 98 by year's end. The testbed, originally scheduled to last until June 24, is extended until  September 10, and then November 30. The first registrar to come online is Register.com on June 7.

  • Top 10 TLDs by Host #: com, net, edu, jp, uk, mil, us, de, ca, au
  • Technologies of the Year: E-Trade, Online Banking, MP3
  • 1/99-- 43,230,000 Computers Online
  • 7/99-- 56,218,000 Computers Online
  • 1/99-- 4,062,280 Websites
  • 12/99--9,560,866 Websites

2000:

  • AOL signs up its 21 millionth member.
  • For the first time, AOL subscribers now are averaging more than one hour online daily.
  • More than 1.6 million people now use the service at the same time during peak periods (compared to one million a year ago)
  • 110 million e-mails sent daily (50 million a year ago)
  • 600 million instant messages sent per day (400 million a year ago)

2001:

  • Schools in five states gain access to Internet 2
  • .Biz top level domain goes live on 11/7
  • 36,000,000 Websites on the Web by 12/01

2002:

  •  Forrester predicts that consumers will spend a total of 72.1 billion online on non-travel purchases in 2002. (nua.com)
  • Asia-Pacific will have more Internet users than either Europe or North America by the end of 2002, according to a new forecast from eMarketer. The study indicates that there will be more than 180 million Internet users in Asia-Pacific by the end of the year, compared with 175.7 million users in Europe and 167.7 million in North America. (nua.com)
  •  AOL Statistics:
    • 34 million members worldwide
    • 2.57 million peak simultaneous users
    • 392 million e-mails sent daily
    • 245 million stock quotes daily
    • 13.4 billion Web URLs served daily
    • 71.4 minutes online per member daily
    • More than 1.38 billion instant messages sent daily
      across the AOL network
  •  Ebay has 50 Million Users
  •  800,000 .info names registered by 5/2002
  •  624,000 .biz names registered by 5/2002
  •  21,000,000 .com names registered on 7/2002. This is down two million from 9/2001.
  •  3.6 million .net names registered on 7/2002
  • 7,000 .edu names registered on 7/2002
  • 2.3 million .org names registered on 7/2002 (The domain data comes from http://www.zooknic.com/Users/index.html)
  • Internet2 announced on 8/28 that university
    membership in the advanced networking research and development
    consortium has reached a new milestone of 200 institutions.

Hobbes Internet Timeline

Network Access Points

There are only four US companies with true Internet access. If you look at Figure 1-7 in the book you will see the four NAPs on the Internet backbone. By looking at Figure 1-9 you can see how you obtain Internet access. More than likely it is through a company that purchased access from one of the four NAPs rather than from one of the NAPs itself. These companies are called Internet service providers. They generally provide access to the Internet as well as other services such as Web design. Companies such as AOL and MSN buy access to the Internet from the four big shots. The closer you are to the top of the access food chain, the faster your access will be.

Access is measured in bits per second. Figure 1-10 displays information about the different types of services you can buy and the speed they provide.