A BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERNET

Early in 1960s some people started to think about sharing of information from one computer to other computer.
They saw great potential in sharing information among computers on research and development in the fields of science and military. They kept working on it and the first network of computers was proposed in 1962. The person who proposed it was “J.C.R.Licklider” of “MIT”. In late 1962 this network was shifted to “DARPA”, there it was further developed.

To form the basis of internet connections, “Packet Switching” theory was developed by “Leonard Kleinrock” of “MIT” and “UCLA”. A connection between a “Massachusetts” computer and a “California” computer was made by “Lawrence Roberts” of “MIT” over “Dial-up Telephone Lines” in 1965. This showed the feasibility of “Wide Area Network”. It also revealed that telephone lines’ circuit switching was inadequate. Roberts moved to “DARPA” in 1966 to develop his plan for “ARPANET”.

“TED KENNEDY’S TELEGRAM TO BBN”

The name given to internet at that time was “ARPANET”. It was brought online by “ARPA” under a contract in 1969. Initially four major computers were connected by “ARPA” in different four universities named as followed:

        ·         UCLA

        ·         UCSB

        ·         Stanford Research Institute

        ·         University of Utah

This contract was carried by “BBN” of “Cambridge” and 1970-1971 following bodies took part in this project:

        ·         MIT Harvard

        ·         SDC

        ·         Stanford

        ·         MIT’s Lincoln Labs

        ·         Carnegie-Mellon

        ·         Case-Western Reserve U

After this era so many other bodies became part of this gradually.

“WHO GAINED TITLE OF FIRST USER OF INTERNET?”

At that time internet was not easy to use and there were no personal computers. Only professionals, scientists, engineers, experts and librarians used the internet. The one who wanted to use internet, he first took the training to use a complex system, since, internet was not user friendly as like as today’s internet.

“DID AL GORE INVENT THE INTERNET?”

“Ray Tomlinson” of “BBN” used the term “E-Mail” for the first time. He selected @ symbol to connect the user name and address. In 1972, an “RFC” was published which is a “Telnet Protocol” and enables log on to a remote computer. “RFC” are simply means of sharing of developmental work throughout community. The “FTP Protocol” was published as “RFC” in 1973 which enables transfer of files between “websites”.

In the late 1960s librarians began networking their catalogs on their own without “ARPA”. One, who led networking of “Ohio Libraries” during 1960s and 1970s, was “Frederick G. Kilgour” of “OCLC, Inc.”. Consortia from New England, Southwest States and Middle Atlantic States also joined “OCLC, Inc.” in the middle of 1970s and they just not formed a network, an international network as well. At that time these catalogs were not user friendly. These catalogs became available to the world. First of all these catalogs were available through “Telnet” or “Awkward IBM Variant, TN3270”. After a few years later these catalogs were available through “Web”.

“WHAT IS ETHERNET?”

“Bob Kahn” at “BBN” proposed “TCP/IP” architecture in 1970s at that time internet was mature. After that “Bob Kahn” and “Vint Cerf” developed it further at Stanford throughout 1970s. In 1980s Defense Department replaced “NCP” with “TCP/IP” architecture. It was universally adopted in 1983.

The “UUCP” was invented at “Bells Lab” in 1978 and “Usenet” in 1979 on the base of “UUCP”. While “Usenet” is not considered a part of internet because it doesn’t share use of “TCP/IP” but it linked unix systems around the world and many sites took advantage of “Newsgroups”.

“WHEN DID BITNET BEGIN?”

Using “BITNET” it became possible to connect the educational “Mainframes” around the world. The first software developed for this network was “Listserv” and later on others were developed.

“NSFNet” as a cross country 56 Kbps backbone for the internet was funded by “National Science Foundation” in 1986.

When commands became standardized for “E-mail, FTP and Telnet”, it became very easy for non-technical people to use internet. Still it was not easy as today it is but it was used by more and more people at that time. The use of internet for communication with colleagues and sharing of files was started by other departments.

At that time number of sites on the internet was very small and it was easy to track the resources. Later on more and more organizations, libraries, universities, etc. connected and with passage of time it became difficult to track the resources of the internet.

While facing these difficulties a new archiver was created in 1989. That archiver was named “Archie”. This was used for “FTP” sites. This archiver was created by “Peter Deutsch” and “Alan Emtage”. They both were student of “McGill University” in “Montreal”. This software was used approximately for all the “FTP” sites with passage of time.

“ONE DAY WHAT DID McGill UNIVERSITY DO WITH ARCHIE?”

“Brewster Kahle” an employee of “Thinking Machines, Corporation”, developed a server with the name of “WAIS”. It was able to index full text of the files and allowed searches for these files. It was developed further but its simplest version was available on internet. Over 600 databases were indexed by “WAIS”. Its interface was not easy to understand as “”Archie’s” was, it was learnt before use.

In 1990, a catalog named “Hytelnet Catalog” was created by “Peter Scott”. He maintained it for years and in 1997 added “HyWebCat” to provide information on web-based catalogs.

The first “User Friendly Interface” was developed in 1991 to the internet at “University of Minnesota”. The aim of the University was to develop a simple system to access the files and information on the campus through their local network. There was a debate between mainframe adherents and those who believed in small systems with “client-server architecture”. This debate was won by mainframe adherents and others were given time to demonstrate that they can put a prototype. The demonstration system was called “gopher”. The gopher was very effective and prolific just in few years there were 10,000 gophers around the world. It was a simple system and you were to just enter the number or click on the menu you want to select.

“University of Nevada” at “Reno” developed “VERONICA” searchable index of gopher menus. After that “JUGHEAD” was developed for single sites.

Some people at “European Laboratory” including “Tim Berners-Lee” for Particle Physics proposed a new protocol for information based on “Hyperlink” in 1989. The same protocol became “WWW” in 1991.

“Mosaic” was developed by “Marc Andreessen” and his team at “NCSA” in 1993. It gave a great boost to the “Hyperlink”. “Marc Andreessen” moved to “Netscape Corp.”, and they produced graphical browser and server. After that “Microsoft” came into action and developed its “Microsoft Internet Explorer”.

”HOW MUCH TIME DID MOSAIC TAKE TO LOAD A PAGE AT THAT TIME?”

In the start internet was funded by Government and was available to limited use for education and research. Its commercial use was prohibited till early 90s. After day after independent commercial networks began to grow and eventually it became possible to route traffic across the country without passing the govt. funded “NSFNet” internet backbone.

“VIEWS OF MICHAEL DERTOUZOS ON INTERNET”

The first Online Commercial Service was Delphi to offer internet access to its subscribers. Its e-mail connection was opened in July 1992 and full services of internet in November 1992.

In May 1995, “National Science Foundation” ended its sponsorship to backbone the internet so than all the pretenses on commercial use of internet disappeared. As it happened all the traffic moved on commercial networks. “AOL”, “Prodigy”, and “CompuServe” came online.

Major shift over the commercially based internet was possible due to complete entry of “Microsoft” into the “Browser”, “Server” and “Internet Service Provider”. “Bill Gates” determination to capitalize the growth of internet, resulted in “Windows 98” in June 1998.

After this enormous growth of internet businesses started to shift over the internet but people were shaky to trust on the security of internet. At the time Delphi provided free web pages, chat rooms, etc. to combine the community over the internet. Advertisement of businesses also started over the internet. It was the source of income for many web sites but still it was very low. Online markets build and it was easy to compare the prices.

At that time systems were not faster as much as now have been improved. 56Kbps “Modem” and providers are now low end. 56K is not fast enough and cannot carry high quality media. In the present era “DSL” and “Cable Modems” are predominant.

With the passage of time wireless networks became popular among the people and now people when travel search for “Wi-Fi hot spot” to search on internet. Keeping in mind this need of people many motels, cafes, airports, etc. are providing this facility free and some charge for it.

Next step is towards universal wireless access, it means there would be hot spot everywhere in the world.

A trend is rapidly effecting web designers is the growth of small devices to connect to the internet as below:

        ·         Smart Phones

        ·         Tablets

        ·         Ebooks

        ·         Game Machines

        ·         Wristwatches

        ·         Spy Cameras, etc.

Many web pages designed before are not capable to be used on these devices so currently a very popular web design is “Responsive Web Design” it has solved this problem.

Now internet has become vital part of life since it is increasing access to non-technical communities, social networking and collaborative services. Some most popular sites:

        1.       Linked-In

        2.       Twitter

        3.       Facebook

        4.       Flicker

        5.       Second Life

        6.       YouTube

        7.       Daily Motion

        8.       Delicious

        9.       Blogs

        10.   Wikies, etc.

Are allowing people of all ages to share their interests everywhere in the world through internet. All these growths still facing a challenge of Protecting Privacy.

*This is growing and developing in a way the end of which is unknown, nobodies knows up to what extend it will go.

REFERENCES:

        v  www.walthowe.com

        v  www.wikipedia.com