Background and History of the Internet

Page Two

"When, why and how did the internet begin?"

E-mail & ARPANET:

During the 1972, second year of operation, an aberration became clear. The dedicated deep thinking researchers and scientists had changed the ARPANET into a federally subsidized, high-speed, electronic post-office. The primary traffic on ARPANET was not long-distance research. Instead, it was personal correspondence, sometimes unrelated to the projects at hand. True, researchers were using ARPANET to collaborate on projects, to trade notes on work. But, a portion of this electronic mail was chatter and rumor. Users had their own personal accounts on the ARPANET computers, and their own personal addresses for electronic mail. This turned out to be a feature that was hailed by the users as the most important feature.

The creation of a mailing-list, an ARPANET broadcasting technique in which an identical message could be sent automatically to large numbers of network users was the next unexpected development. One of the first big mailing-lists was "sf-lovers," for science fiction fans. Not work-related, discussing science fiction on the network was frowned on by ARPANET computer administrators. The disapproval didn't shut down these first fledgling use-net groups.

The '70s saw the continued growth of ARPANET. Unlike existing corporate computer networks, the ARPANET could utilize many different computers. The decentralized structure made expansion easy. As long as individual machines could speak the packet-switching protocol of the new network, their ownership, operating system, content and even the manufacturer, were irrelevant.

ARPANET's original standard for communication was NCP, "network control protocol," but as programs improved and techniques advanced, NCP was superceded by a more sophisticated standard known as TCP/IP. TCP, or "transmission control protocol," converts the messages into streams of packets at the source, then reassembles the messages back into a coherent whole at the destination. IP, or "internet protocol," handles the addressing, setting the packets as they are routed across the many nodes and multiple networks with different standards -- not only ARPANET's first NCP standard, but others like Ethernet and FDDI.

By the mid to late 70's, the new TCP/IP protocol was being used by other networks to link to the ARPANET. Until 1983 ARPANET remained tightly regulated, then its military segment broke off and became MILNET. TCP/IP still linked them all. ARPANET though it was growing, was becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the rapidly growing network(s) of interlinked computers.

As the 1980s progressed, many different companies and universities were able to afford new and powerful computers. It was fairly easy to link these computers to the burgeoning national inter-connected network. TCP/IP was public-domain software and with the basic technology design it was nearly impossible to stop people from dialing in and linking up to the network. As the use of TCP/IP became more common, and college students left the universities and took the new network style with them the "internet" was born. This decentralized growth became unstoppable. More than likely nobody wanted to stop them from joining this growing computer network. By the late 80's the network began moving in a commercial direction.

Each node was independent, and had to handle its own financing and its own technical specifications. These independent networks began to offer this service to other dial-up users that were not related like earlier users. Like the telephone network, the computer network became steadily more valuable as it embraced larger and larger territories of people and resources.

For an invention to be valuable it has to find willing users. For an invention that requires two or more units before it works to be valuable someone has to be first. The first telephone was useless until there were two, The facsimile communication device has been with us since the 1920's and only be came common and valuable use as a FAX in the last ten to fifteen years. For ARPANET to move from oddity to useable tool it took two users, but it grew until it was a necessity for a researcher. Computer-networking became a valuable business or research tool.

In 1984 the National Science Foundation entered the picture, through the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing division. NSFNET prescribed a course of technical advancement, hooking up newer, faster, computers, through broadband, faster links. From 1986 through 1990 NSFNET grew at pace that was almost unbelievable. Many government agencies joined the rush to communicate and link together; Department of Energy, NOA, NASA, National Institutes of Health, FBI and others.

At about this time it was necessary to add some routing to the vast quantity of information bouncing around the Internet. The different users were users were segregated into domain groups. Some foreign computers, and a few United States ones, chose to be designated by their geographical locations. The rest were grouped by the six basic Internet domains; com, org, net, edu, mil, and gov.

ARPANET had begun as a think-tank research exercise in national security. Governmental, military and educational institutions were labeled with domain.gov, domain.mil and domain.edu. These types of domains were the pioneers. Commercial entities were designated by domain-name.com, and they became the fastest growing part of the "net". Non-profit organizations began wearing the moniker of, domain-name.org. The "net" computers, the ISP's (Internet Service Providers), were marked domain.net. In recent years there has been some misuse of the extensions, but overall they still serve to identify the type of domain to the web surfer. As the Internet fills up there are many recent changes to the style and substance of domain names. All of the variations and country codes used today will be the subject of a future chapter. Currently the United States and several European countries are starting to review changes to the way domain names are handed out and who will have what designation. So until the dust settles be aware that the domain name styles will chance or be added to.

The Internet was (and still is) especially popular among scientists, and was one of the most important scientific advances of the twentieth century. The potent, sophisticated access that it provided to specialized data and personal communication was major contributor to the increase in the pace of scientific research.

In 1971, there were only four computers in the network known as ARPANET. The year, 1989, saw the formal demise of ARPANET itself. The users probably did not noticed, for ARPANET's functions not only continue but are steadily improving. The TCP/IP standards for computer networking is world wide. Now there are two to four hundred million surfers using the Internet. These computers, using everything from landlines to satellite communication relays, are scattered all over the globe making the Internet the largest standard for communications. More and more computers or nodes are coming on-line every day.

In the early years the Internet's growth was characterized by growth spurts as institutions and agencies added their resources. During the 1980's the growth rate could be called steady. In the last ten years the Internet's growth has been beyond belief. In the late 1990s the rate at which it is growing has to be revised almost month by month. It is growing faster than cellular phones and e-mail is replacing the fax machines in many business communications. As this is written Reuters New Agency is reporting that the Internet is doubling in size every 100 days. The number of "host" machines with direct connection to TCP/IP has been doubling every year since 1988. The Internet has moved far beyond the original design of military, research institutions and universities into elementary and high schools, as well as into public libraries, the commercial sector and into almost every home with a computer. Several brands of dedicated terminals are now available to hook the internet direct to you television, bringing the internet into the living room.

Nothing happens in a vacuum. The growth, the invasion, of the Internet has to be driven by something. Use, people are using it. Why are all walks of life "on the internet?" Business use, research and universities have fairly well defined uses for the net. The real growth in the Internet has come from the fact that the Internet contains a wealth of information, news, products and provides many forms of communication. The typical internet user used to be male and under forty. Now the age and gender of the user will help define what they are using the internet for, it does not define "just" who uses it. Almost everyone using the internet uses it for some of their communication. They also use it for shopping, entertainment, travel and information gathering.

Continued on: Page 3

Internet Glossary

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