History of the Internet Steven Johnson Mr. Dominguez Literature Period 514 May 2001 Works Cited Buick, Joanna and Jevtic, Zoran. Introducing Cyberspace. New York, NY: Totem Books, 1995. Crick, Prof. Rex E.
E-Mail History. [Online] Available web December 20, 1999. Hafner, Katie and Lyon, Mathew. Where Wizards Stay up Late. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Inc.
, 1996.’ Internet.’ Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999 ed. Kristula, Dave. The History of the Internet. [Online] Available web November 19, 1999.
Network Solutions, Inc. What is the History of the Internet. [Online] Available web November 19, 1999. Torgiano. Vinton Cerf. [Online] Available web December 20, .
History of the Internet. [Online] Available web December 21, 1999. Johnson 1 The Internet is a vast network of computers and other mini-networks all linked together so that everyone can find information, purchase products, or meet new people. It is easily accessible from home for anyone that has a computer and a modem or at a local library. It has made a huge impact since its introduction to the public and now some people cannot see life without it. It is also relatively new considering it was just about 10 years ago that it was made public and easily accessible to everyone thorough online services.
The Internet works by a number of connections, leading to a bigger one and then somehow finding where it wants to be. So how does it do this? First it begins at the PC where the User’s machine is equipped to send and receive all variety of audio and video. From there, the data goes out through the PC’s communication to the user’s ‘Local Loop’ which is the Internet service provider such as AOL or some other online provider. In there, the system decides what kind of data is being sent and at this location it tells the data what type of data it is and where to go. Examples of the different kinds of data are Domain Name Server, E-mail, and newsgroups. From there it is sent to the ISP backbone, which interconnects the ISP’s, POPs, and interconnects the ISP to other ISP’s and online content.
At this location the data is routed to the desired location and the online content the user was looking for, is found. The data is then sent back through the system to the original user. The information that is on the data coming back could have came from a wide array of sources such as books, financial markets, embedded chips or even made up by someone trying to fool the user. The History? The Internet is first Johnson 2 conceived in the early ’60 s. “Under the leadership of the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Project Agency, it grows from a paper architecture into a small network (ARPANET) meant to promote the sharing of super-computers amongst researchers in the United States.” (Kristula, pg 68). Through the next couple years there were talks of about how this network could come into the cooperate world.
In 1969 researchers at four US campuses created the first hosts of the ARPANET. They connected the Stanford Research Institute, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. The ARPANET was a success from the very beginning. Although originally designed to allow scientists to share data and access remote computers, email quickly became the most popular application. The ARPANET became a high-speed digital post office as people use it to collaborate on research projects and discuss topics of various interests.
In 1971 the ARPANET grows to 23 hosts connecting universities and government research centers around the country. In 1972, the Inter-Networking Working Group becomes the first of several standards, which set entities to govern the growing network. Vinton Cerf is elected the first chairman of the IN WG, and later becomes known as a ‘Father of the Internet.’ The ARPANET goes international in 1973 with connections to University College in London, England and the Royal Radar Establishment in Norway. (Kristula). From 1974 to 1981 the general public starts to get its first hint of how networked computers can be used in daily life as the commercial version of the ARPANET goes online. The ARPANET starts to move away from its military and research roots and in 1974.
Bolt, Ber anek & Newman opens Telnet, the first commercial version of the Johnson 3 ARPANET. In 1981 ARPANET has 213 hosts and a new host was being added approximately once every 20 days. From 1982 to 1987 Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf are key members of a team which creates TCP/IP, the common language of all Internet computers. For the first time it seemed as though the loose collection of networks which made up the ARPANET is seen as an ‘internet’, and the Internet as we know it today is born. The mid-80 s marks a “boom” in the personal computer and super-minicomputer industries. The combination of inexpensive desktop machines and powerful, network-ready servers allows many companies to join the Internet for the first time.
Corporations begin to use the Internet to communicate with each other and their customers. In 1982 the term ‘Internet’ is used for the first time. By 1984 the number of Internet hosts exceeds 1, 000, by 1987 the number exceeded 10, 000, and by 1990 the number exceeded 300, 000. By 1988 the Internet is an essential tool for communications, however it also begins to create concerns about privacy and security in the digital world. New words, such as ‘hacker,’ ‘cracker’ and’ electronic break-in’, are created. These new terms caused worries, which were demonstrated on Nov.
1, 1988 when a program called the ‘Internet Worm’ temporarily disabled approximately 6, 000 of the 60, 000 Internet hosts. The Computer Emergency Response Team was formed in 1988 and it was their job to address security concerns raised by the Worm. In 1993, corporations wishing to use the Internet faced a serious problem which was commercial network traffic, which was banned from the National Science Foundation’s NSFNET, the backbone of the Internet. Johnson 4 In 1991, the NSF lifts the restriction on commercial use, allowing for more electronic commerce to take place.
“Also in 1991 at the University of Minnesota, a team led by computer programmer Mark MaCa hill releases ‘gopher,’ the first point-and-click way of navigating the files of the Internet. Originally designed to ease campus communications, gopher is freely distributed on the Internet.” (Hafner). Also, 1991 was the year in which Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN in Switzerland, posts the first computer code of the World Wide Web in a newsgroup, ‘alt. hypertext.’ The ability to combine words, pictures, and sounds on Web pages excites many computer programmers who see the potential for publishing information on the Internet in a way that can be as easy as using a word processor.
Marc Andersen and a group of student programmers at NCSA (the National Center for Supercomputing Applications) will eventually develop a graphical browser for the World Wide Web called Mosaic. In 1993, Mosaic became the first graphics-based Web browser. By 1993 traffic on the NSF backbone network exceeds 1 trillion bytes per month, and the first audio and video broadcasts take place over a portion of the Internet known as the ‘MBONE.’ More than 1, 000, 000 hosts are now part of the Internet and it expands at a 341, 634% annual growth rate. In 1995 NSFNET reverts back to a research project, leaving the Internet in commercial hands.
The Web now comprises the bulk of Internet traffic. James Gosling, and a team of programmers at Sun Microsystems release an Internet programming Johnson 5 language called Java, which alters the way applications and information can be retrieved, displayed, as well as used over the Internet. When the Internet celebrated its 25 th Anniversary in 1996, the military strategies that influenced its birth became historical footnotes. Approximately 40 million people are connected to the World Wide Web. Users in almost 150 countries around the world are experiencing the net. The number of computer hosts approaches 10 million.
“Within 30 years, the Internet has grown from a Cold War concept for controlling the tattered remains of a post-nuclear society to the Information Superhighway. Just as the railroads of the 19 th century enabled the Machine Age, and revolutionized the society of the time, the Internet takes us into the Information Age, and affects the world in which we live.” (Torgiano). These days, people are telecommuting over the Internet, allowing them to choose where to live based on quality of life, not how close it is to work. Many cities view the Internet as a solution to their jam-packed highways and smoggy air.
Schools use the Internet as a vast electronic library, with many possibilities. Doctors use the Internet to consult with colleagues thousands of miles away. As a new generation grows up as accustomed to communicating through a keyboard as in person, life on the Internet will become an increasingly important part of life on Earth. Personally, I see the Twenty-first Century as “The Age of the Internet.” The Internet has come a long way in the past 50 years. It’s gone from basic TCP/IP file sharing to state-of-the-art animation and top graphics, and that’s not including the way to share files..