History of the Internet

Dr Maria Elena Villapol

January 2009

1957

Spuntnik was launched.

Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the Department of Defense (DoD) was formed as response.

Mid-1960s

Mainframe computers were standalone computers.

ARPA

Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the Department of Defense (DoD) was interested in finding a way to connect computers.

So researchers, they funded could share they findings.

1959-1967

There was some research on packet networks: Lenoard Kleinrock:

Information Flow in Large Communication Networks, PhD Thesis, 1961.

Paul Baran, RAND: "On Distributed Communications Networks" - Packet-switching (PS) networks; no single outage point, 1961.

Larry Roberts/Tom Marill publish first paper on network experiments, 1966.

http://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/full_size_images/baran_paper.gif

1965

ARPA sponsors study on "cooperative network of time-sharing computers" TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and Q-32 at System

Development Corporation (Santa Monica, CA) are directly linked (without packet switches)

Question

How were they connected? a) A satellite link

b) A dedicated telephone line.

c) A radio link

d) TV network

http://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/full_size_images/tx-2.jpg

1967

ACM Symposium on Operating Principles:

Larry Roberts presented a plan for a packet-switching network.

Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England develops NPL Data Network under D. W. Davies.

Larry Roberts ARPAs Director

Donald Davies

http://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/full_size_images/larry_roberts.jpghttp://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/full_size_images/davies.jpg

1967

ARPA wants to build a small computer network. It is called ARPANET later on. Host computer would be attached to a

specialized computer, called Interface Message Processor, IMP.

An IMP would be connected to one another. An IMP had to be able to communicate with:

Attached host Other IMP

1968

BBN in consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts wins the contract to build the subnet and write the software.

1969

Question

How many nodes did the very first ARPANET have?

a) 2 nodes.

b) 4 nodes.

c) 10 nodes.

d) 100 nodes.

1969

First node at UCLA, Network Measurements Center [SDS SIGMA 7, SEX] :

Soon after at:

Stanford Research Institute (SRI), NIC [SDS940/Genie]

UCSB, Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics [IBM 360/75, OS/MVT]

Univ of Utah, Graphics [DEC PDP-10, Tenex]

1969 IMP

1969

SRI

UCLA

29 Oct 1969

First Message sent on the Internet.

Question

What was the first message ever sent on the Internet?

a) What hath God Wrought (Morse, 1844)

b) Watson, come her, I want you (Bell, 1876)

c) LO (??)

d) One Giant Leap for Mankind (Amstrong 1969)

1969

Question

The news of the first message on the Internet was announced by:

a) Yahoo Today News

b) Nobody noticed

c) Several newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters around the world.

November 1969

1969: 4-node ARPANET

The Network Control Protocol (NCP) provides communication between the hosts

1970

ALOHAnet developed by Norman Abrahamson, Univ of Hawaii.

connected to the ARPANET in 1972

1971

15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, Univ of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames.

1971

1973-1974

1973: Vinn Cerf and Bob Kahn design TCP.

1974: Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" which specified in detail the design of a Transmission Control Program (TCP). [IEEE Trans Comm]

1978

TCP splits into TCP and IP.

1982

DCA and ARPA establish the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, for ARPANET.

This leads to one of the first definitions of an "internet" as a connected set of networks, specifically those using TCP/IP, and "Internet" as connected TCP/IP internets.

DoD declares TCP/IP suite to be standard for DoD.

1986-1989

1986: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) comes into existence under the IAB. First IETF meeting held in January at Linkabit in San Diego.

1987: Number of hosts breaks 10,000

1989: Number of hosts breaks 100,000

1970-1990 Internet Applications

E-mail

News

Remote Login using Telnet, rlogin, ssh

File Transfer using FTP

1991-1993

1991:National Science Fundation (NFS) opens Internet for commercial use.

1992: World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim Berners-Lee developer.

1993: March Andreesson Mosaic Browser

1994

First spam on the Internet by two Arizona-based attorneys Lawrence Canter and Martha Siegel.

References

Leonard Kleinrock . Brief History of the Internet. http://www.oid.ucla.edu/webcast/Inet35/.

R. Zakon. Hobbes' Internet Timeline. http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2235.txt.

http://www.oid.ucla.edu/webcast/Inet35/http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2235.txthttp://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2235.txthttp://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2235.txt