The Evolution of the Internet

In 1969 people in colleges and governments were just learning how to use computers to solve problems. They used simple word processors to write down what they learned and stored it in their computers, but there were no daily updated libraries where people could go to read what other people had just written and add to it.

Someone who worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency came up with the idea that several computers could be linked together by telephone wires so they could "talk" to one another. A note that was written on one computer could immediately be sent to all the other computers. So they wired four computers together in a group. They called that group of computers a network. The network's name was DARPANET, after the first letters of the name of the agency with NET (meaning network here) added to the end.

Soon the D was dropped and it was called ARPANET. ARPANET grew and grew over time, adding more and more computers over phone wires. In 1972 it was opened to the public. Many universities connected immediately. The military research people thought they would be better off having their own private network so they created the MILNET network. In 1982 TCP/IP became the declared standard protocol set (that means the standard way of "talking") of the computers connected within the former ARPANET.

The idea of networks caught on, and in 1984 another government agency, the National Science Foundation, started the NSFNET network, which linked together five supercomputer centres and made the information available to any school that needed it. Anyone who entered a network was connected to at least one of the supercomputer centres. That supercomputer gave them access to all the other computers on the network - even to those places that were hooked into the network through another gateway.

Think of gateways as doors that let you go inside the house where a supercomputer lives. Once you are in the house, you can pick up the supercomputer's telephone and call anyone else who has a computer hooked up to a telephone.

NSFNET became very popular. More computers and more wires had to be added because everyone in schools and government wanted to get onto the network. Instead of just adding more computers into the first network of supercomputers, they added more networks and wired all the networks together. They called all these interconnected networks an Inter-Net-Network.

Today we call it the Internet. Because lots of people now have their own personal computers, the Internet is even more popular. In the last 1 0 years it has grown from about 5,000 users to more than 30 million today - with thousands of new computer users coming online every month.

These users connect via "INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS" (ISPs) that charge money for letting people use their hosts on the Internet. The connection between the user and the ISP usually is a telephone line.

Task:

Write down a few notes so that you can tell the history of the Internet, how it evolved and what it is today. What do you think will it be like in 2010?

adapted from: http://schoolnet2.carleton.ca/english

The Romeo & Juliet Internet Project Starting Page: The Evolution of the Internet