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Arpanet
On the 29th October 1969, computers at the universities of Stanford and California connected for the first time using Arpanet. It was created under the direction of the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and had the initial purpose of communicating and sharing computer resources. This was the first actual network to run on packet switching technology. This means they were the first hosts of what one day would become the internet. -
Email
Email, short for ‘electronic mail’, is a system created in 1971 that allows user to send and receive messages using the World Wide Web. It was originally created by ARPANET as a way for its employees to communicate. It wasn’t until 1993 when AOL used this as the basis to create the email we know today. Its worldwide popularity makes it an effective and unique communication tool for both personal and business methods. A message can be send electronically and reach the recipient’s account within s -
Newsgroups/Bulletin Boards
A newsgroup is a system designed to allow many different users to post messages from different locations. It is basically a discussion group in which users can communicate with each. Despite the introduction of new online communication tools such as blogs, social network sites and forums, newsgroups have managed to maintain popularity worldwide.
Similar to newsgroups, bulletin board systems (BBS) allow users to connect and log in to a system. Once logged in users can complete various tasks -
International Packet Switching Service
In 1968, nearly all interactive data communication networks were circuit switched. This means all the transmission bandwidth they use for an entire call/session is already allocated, however this can waste around 90% of this bandwidth. It was concluded that it would be more cost effective to completely redesign the communications network, this lead to the introduction of packet switching. This was different to circuit switching networks in that the transmission bandwidth is dynamically allocated -
TCP/IP Protocol
The TCP/IP suite of Protocol’s is a set of several protocols used to communicate across the internet. They each stand for a separate protocol, TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and IP stands for internet protocol. It is also widely used on many organizational networks due to its flexibility and wide array of functionality provided; an example of this being Microsoft who normally develops their own set of protocols now is widely using TCP/IP. -
Domain Name System
In 1984, Paul Mockapetris introduced the Domain Name System (DNS) as he noticed a problem in the early stages of the internet of holding name to address translations in a single tablet on a single host, and instead proposed a different and dynamic DNS database. The DNS helps users find their way round the internet giving every computer a unique address, known as its IP address. The DNS makes it easier by allowing a familiar string of letters instead of trying to remember everyone’s IP address. -
NSFNET
The term “NSFNET” refers to the program coordination project put forward by the National Science Foundation in 1985 to support and promote advanced networks. It was also the name given to a nationwide networked constructed to support the collective network promotion effort. The NSFNET program was a pioneering force in academic computing infrastructure development and in the enhancement of research efforts through advanced network services. -
Internet Growth
A remarkable feature of the development of the internet was the rate in which new hosts had been connecting to it. Since it was created in 1969 it has rapidly increased in users, at least doubling every year. In 1987 the number of hosts connected to the internet reached 10,000 and just 2 years later in 1989 it had reached a staggering 100,000 hosts. -
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web was created by Tim Bernes-Lee in 1990 while working for CERN he published a proposal that paired up hypertext with the internet to create a system for sharing and distributing information on a global scale. CERN is not an isolated laboratory, but rather a focus for an extensive community that now includes about 60 countries and about 8000 scientists to test for developments for the future, one of these being to introduce the World Wide Web. -
Mosaic Web Browser
By 1992, the internet had become the most popular network after the introduction of the World Wide Web by CERN. After this the web had become the main attention of a programming team at the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), an NFS-supported facility. As the popularity of the internet grew, they focused on creating easy-to-use software tools for desktop machines. They created many different applications but the one that stood out from the rest was Mosaic, -
Search Engines
The first search engine ever created was Archie in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal. The original name intended was “Archives” but was shorted to Archie. Archie collects information by crawling the internet and then matches the files it finds with the search criteria entered by the user. Although this was the first search engine, it wasn’t as successful as those created in the later 90’s. In 1995, Larry Page and Sergey Brin met a Stanford University as students stu -
The DotCom Bubble Burst
The Dotcom bubble burst caused the 2000 stock market crash. The year 1992 to 2000 was favourable towards the stock market as the dot com boom was in full effect. Shares were being bought in hundreds of online companies due to the increasing development of the internet. Many people/companies paid thousands in shares for new and upcoming businesses in the hope they would increase and gain a huge profit. However, in the year 2000 the stock market plummeted resulting in a huge loss -
Blogs
Blogs are website that allows users to write a personal log that is frequently updated and then posted online it for others to see. They are sometimes created by a group to discuss a certain topic such as the news, sport, politics etc. Some people believe that Mosaic’s what’s new page in 1993 was the first weblog, however it wasn’t until Blogger was created in early 2000 that it gained the world attention. By October 2000, Blogger users were creating 300 new blogs a day. -
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), as known as IP Telephony, is the real-time submission of voice signals using the Internet Protocol either over the public internet or a private network. It basically converts the voice signal from your telephone into a digital signal that can travel across the internet. The most significant advantage of this is being able to make a long distance call and not having to pay for it. -
VLEs
A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a standard, computer-based environment that allows for web-based learning facilities and online interaction between students and teachers. These VLEs are used for the benefit of learning outside the classroom by gaining access to course and assessment materials. This also allows online tracking of the students’ progress for teachers to be able to assess arrears in which they struggle and gain extra help in specific areas. -
Web Casting
A webcast is a transmission of media over the Internet using streaming technology. The media can take the form of audio and/or video, with the key being that each participant has a live feed of the other in order to communicate. It is basically web broadcasting that can be seen in real time and can be done by anyone with a webcam or microphone and a valid internet connection. An example of this is BBC world news which streams its broadcasts online for the public to view. -
Facebook
Facebook was invented by Harvard computer science student Mark Zukerberg, along with classmates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Zukerberg launched a number of small projects in university but were quickly shut down by Harvard themselves. On February 4th 2004, Mark Zukerberg launched a new website called “TheFacebook”, however just a week later three Harvard seniors accused Zukerberg of stealing their idea for an intended Harvard social networking site. -
YouTube
YouTube was invented by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim in a garage in Menlo Park. However, they did not launch the software themselves but instead sold there invention to Google for $1.65 Billion. It was originally founded back in 2005 and allowed users to upload and share original clips to be watched by anyone on the internet. As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month.
