Author:
Lon W. McDaniel
Internet 4 U

Internet History


Contents

Internet History


A new agency was born DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). DARPA gave birth to ARPANET in 1969. (ARPANET = Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). By 1971 they had about 15 computers hooked-up in their network. That number grew to around 50 in the early 70īs.

The Universities were quick to see the potential inherent in such a network. In 1972 the first E-mail was sent from one University researcher to another via ARPANET. Others soon followed suit, much to the regret of the US mail system. Why spend money on stamps when your letter can make it across the USA in just a few seconds for free?

In fact, E-mail became so popular that the military felt that they needed a computer system of their own. Thatīs why they started up MILNET (The Military Network). Of course, MILNET would still be hooked-up to ARPANET in order to send/receive all those small packages (TCP/IP).

During the 1980īs a large number of networks connected to ARPANET and MILNET. Here in Sweden we have SUNET (The Swedish University Network) located in Stockholm at the KTH (The Royal Institute of Technology). SUNET is in turn connected to NORDUNET (The Nordic University Network), which in turn is connected to the European Union Network.

All of these are cross-connected in a spiderweb-like system with computers and systems in the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada and elsewhere. This really big network really is impossible to stop today. You may not like some of the things you can find on Internet, but one thing is for sure - you can not stop any of it.

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Copywrite © Lon W. McDaniel 1996