MIST 7500 - Fall 2013; C1 - Internet History

The Internet started in the late 1960’s as a way for government researchers to share information. Computers in the '60s were large and bulky. In order to make use of information stored in any one computer, one had to travel to the site of the computer. Another catalyst in the formation of the Internet was the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite and the discovery of missiles in Cuba. This spurred the U.S. Department of Defense to consider ways information could still be transmitted across the country even after a nuclear attack. This eventually led to the formation of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the network that ultimately evolved into what we now know as the Internet. ARPANET was a great success but membership was limited to certain academic and research organizations who had contracts with the Department of Defense. In response to this, other networks were created to provide information sharing. Protocols were standardized so that computers of any platform and location could integrate into the internet. The networks and users expanded exponentially until ARPANET was no longer needed. It was decommissioned in 1983. Over the last 30 years, the internet has grown and changed our lives.

We are no longer using the internet as a “tool”. With the advances over the past decade, we as a society are merging with the internet. It is becoming a part of us and our daily lives.

My top five internet events that shaped the internet

• First connection (circa 1969) – ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) connects the computers of UCLA and Stanford Research Institute’s Augmentation Research Center (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). The transmission was done using a 300 baud rate modem.

• Protocol standardization (circa 1983) – TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) allowed for computers of any type and location to connect together. This protocol is the merging of the original TCP and IP protocols that allow the computers at each end of the network to control the flow of packets (rather than the previous protocol of the main computer controlling it). The Department of Defense adopted this protocol and made it the industry standard by 1985 through seminars with the computing industry.

• Websites and web browsers (circa 1994) – Up until the mid-1990’s, most users of the internet were computer engineers, government employees, or university students. They connected via dial-up modems to iRC’s (Internet Relay Chat) and BBS’s (Bulletin Boards) which were text-based message boards/meeting places. When Mosaic was introduced to “the masses”, it allowed users to expand on their internet experience, and view webpages that offered unique content and images.

• Application development (circa 2000) – The creation of server-side technologies (ASP, PHP, etc.) and client-side (Java, JavaScript, ActiveX, etc.) empowered businesses to overcome the limitations of HTML and allowed webpages to become interactive and customizable.

• High-speed internet hardware (circa 21st century) – Advances in the hardware that carries data packets across the networks, has allowed us to become “part of the internet”. Modems have given way to routers and smart switches that can monitor internet traffic and make adjustments to maximize throughput. When TCP/IP was first invented, modems carried data at a baud rate of 300 bits/second. By comparison, today’s smart switches routers can carry data at speeds of 450 Mbits/second and beyond.

Until next time...