Internet History

By BlakeMiller2399

  • 1836-- Telegraph. Cooke and Wheatstone patent it.

    Revolutionised human (tele)communications.
    Morse Code a series of dots and dashes used to communicate between humans. This is not a million miles away from how computers communicate via (binary 0/1) data today. Although it is much slower!!

  • 1876-- Telephone. Alexander Graham Bell Exhibits.

    Telephones exchanges provide the backbone of Internet connections today.
    Modems provide Digital to Audio conversions to allow computers to connect over the telephone network.

  • 1957-- USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite.

    The start of global telecommunications. Satellites play an important role in transmitting all sorts of data today.
    In response, US forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in science and technology applicable to the military.

  • 1969-- Birth of Internet

    First node at UCLA (Los Angeles) closely followed by nodes at Stanford Research Institute, UCSB (Santa Barbara) and U of Utah (4 Nodes).

  • 1971-- People communicate over a network

    15 nodes (23 hosts) on ARPANET.
    E-mail invented -- a program to send messages across a distributed network. Why is this relevant?

  • 1972-- Computers can connect more freely and easily

    First public demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines.
    Internetworking Working Group (INWG) created to address need for establishing agreed upon protocols.

  • 1973-- Global Networking becomes a reality

    First international connections to the ARPANET: University College of London (England) and Royal Radar Establishment (Norway)
    Ethernet outlined -- this how local networks are basically connected today.
    Internet ideas started.
    Gateway architecture sketched on back of envelope in hotel lobby in San Francisco. Gateways define how large networks (maybe of different architecture) can be connected together.
    File Transfer protocol specified -- how computers send and receive data.

  • 1977-- E-mail takes off, Internet becomes a reality

    Number of hosts breaks 100.
    THEORYNET provides electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using a locally developed E-mail system and TELENET for access to server).
    Mail specification
    First demonstration of ARPANET/Packet Radio Net/SATNET operation of Internet protocols over gateways.

  • 1962 - 1968-- Packet-switching (PS) networks developed

    As we will see later the Internet relies on packets to transfer data.
    The origin is military : for utmost security in transferring information of networks (no single outage point).
    Data is split into tiny packets that may take different routes to a destination.
    Hard to eavesdrop on messages.
    More than one route available -- if one route goes down another may be followed.
    Networks can withstand large scale destruction (Nuclear attack - This was the time of the Cold War).

  • 1989-- Large growth in Internet

    Number of hosts breaks 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

  • 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.