History of The Internet: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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History of the Internet

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Commemorative plaque listing some of the early Internet pioneers

The concept of data communication - transmitting data between two different places, connected
via some kind of electromagnetic medium, such as radio or an electrical wire - actually predates
the introduction of the first computers. Such communication systems were typically limited to
point to point communication between two end devices. Telegraph systems and telex machines
can be considered early precursors of this kind of communication. The earlier computers used
the technology available at the time to allow communication between the central processing unit
and remote terminals. As the technology evolved new systems were devised to allow
communication over longer distances (for terminals) or with higher speed (for interconnection of
local devices) that were necessary for the mainframe computer model. Using these technologies
it was possible to exchange data (such as files) between remote computers. However, the point to
point communication model was limited, as it did not allow for direct communication between
any two arbitrary systems; a physical link was necessary. The technology was also deemed as
inherently unsafe for strategic and military use, because there were no alternative paths for the
communication in case of an enemy attack.

As a response, several research programs started to explore and articulate principles of


communications between physically separate systems, leading to the development of the packet
switching model of digital networking. These research efforts included those of the laboratories
of Vinton G. Cerf at Stanford University, Donald Davies (NPL), Paul Baran (RAND
Corporation), and Leonard Kleinrock at MIT and at UCLA. The research led to the development
of several packet-switched networking solutions in the late 1960s and 1970s, including
ARPANET, Telenet, and the X.25 protocols. Additionally, public access and hobbyist
networking systems grew in popularity, including unix-to-unix copy (UUCP) and FidoNet. They
were however still disjointed separate networks, served only by limited gateways between
networks. This led to the application of packet switching to develop a protocol for
internetworking, where multiple different networks could be joined together into a super-
framework of networks. By defining a simple common network system, the Internet Protocol
Suite, the concept of the network could be separated from its physical implementation. This
spread of internetworking began to form into the idea of a global network that would be called
the Internet, based on standardized protocols officially implemented in 1982. Adoption and
interconnection occurred quickly across the advanced telecommunication networks of the
western world, and then began to penetrate into the rest of the world as it became the de-facto
international standard for the global network. However, the disparity of growth between
advanced nations and the third-world countries led to a digital divide that is still a concern today.

Following commercialization and introduction of privately run Internet service providers in the
1980s, and the Internet's expansion for popular use in the 1990s, the Internet has had a drastic
impact on culture and commerce. This includes the rise of near instant communication by
electronic mail (e-mail), text based discussion forums, and the World Wide Web. Investor
speculation in new markets provided by these innovations would also lead to the inflation and
subsequent collapse of the Dot-com bubble. But despite this, the Internet continues to grow,
driven by commerce, greater amounts of online information and knowledge and social
networking known as Web 2.0.

History of computing

Hardware before 1960

Hardware 1960s to present

Hardware in Soviet Bloc countries

Artificial intelligence

Computer science

Operating systems

Programming languages

Software engineering

Graphical user interface

Internet

Personal computers

Laptops

Video games
World Wide Web

Timeline of computing

 2400 BC–1949
 1950–1979
 1980–1989
 1990–1999
 2000–2009
 More timelines...

More...
Contents
[hide]

 1 Three terminals and an ARPA


 2 Packet switching
 3 Networks that led to the Internet
o 3.1 ARPANET
o 3.2 X.25 and public access
o 3.3 UUCP
o 3.4 NPL
 4 Merging the networks and creating the Internet
o 4.1 TCP/IP
o 4.2 ARPANET to several federal wide area networks: MILNET, NSI, and NSFNet
o 4.3 Transition towards the Internet
 5 TCP/IP becomes worldwide
o 5.1 CERN, the European Internet, the link to the Pacific and beyond
o 5.2 Digital divide
 5.2.1 Africa
 5.2.2 Asia and Oceania
 5.2.3 Latin America
 6 Opening the network to commerce
o 6.1 Internet Engineering Task Force
o 6.2 NIC, InterNIC, IANA and ICANN
o 6.3 Globalization and 21st century
 7 Use and culture
o 7.1 E-mail and Usenet
o 7.2 From gopher to the WWW
o 7.3 Search engines
o 7.4 Dot-com bubble
o 7.5 Online population forecast
o 7.6 Mobile phones and the Internet
 8 Historiography
 9 See also
 10 References
 11 Further reading
 12 External links

[edit] Three terminals and an ARPA


Main articles: RAND and ARPANET

In the 1950s and early 1960s, before the widespread inter-networking that led to the Internet,
most communication networks were limited in that they only allowed communications between
the stations on the network. Some networks had gateways or bridges between them, but these
bridges were often limited or built specifically for a single use. One prevalent computer
networking method was based on the central mainframe method, simply allowing its terminals to
be connected via long leased lines. This method was used in the 1950s by Project RAND to
support researchers such as Herbert Simon, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, when collaborating across the continent with researchers in Sullivan, Illinois, on
automated theorem proving and artificial intelligence.

A fundamental pioneer in the call for a global network, J.C.R. Licklider, articulated the ideas in
his January 1960 paper, Man-Computer Symbiosis.

"A network of such [computers], connected to one another by wide-band communication lines
[which provided] the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in
information storage and retrieval and [other] symbiotic functions."
—J.C.R. Licklider, [1]

In August, 1962, Licklider and Welden Clark published the paper "On-Line Man Computer
Communication", one of the first descriptions of a networked future.

In October, 1962, Licklider was hired by Jack Ruina as Director of the newly established IPTO
within DARPA, with a mandate to interconnect the United States Department of Defense's main
computers at Cheyenne Mountain, the Pentagon, and SAC HQ. There he formed an informal
group within DARPA to further computer research. He began by writing memos describing a
distributed network to the IPTO staff, whom he called "Members and Affiliates of the
Intergalactic Computer Network". As part of the information processing office's role, three
network terminals had been installed: one for System Development Corporation in Santa
Monica, one for Project Genie at the University of California, Berkeley and one for the

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