A History of the Interment
This section is a summary of some of the material contained in Hobbes' Internet Timeline and also contains sources from Pros Online - Internet History, What is the Internet? and History of Internet and WWW : View from NetValley and a variety of text books. Consult these source for more detailed information.
1836-- Telegraph. Cooke and Wheatstone patent it. Why is this relevant?
Why is this relevant?
source (http://www.netvalley.com/archives/mirrors/davemarsh-timeline-1.htm)
1836-- Telegraph. Cooke and Wheatstone patent it. Why is this relevant?
- Revolutionised human (tele)communications.
- Morse Code a series of dots and dashes used to communicate between humans. This is not a million miles away from how computers communicate via (binary 0/1) data today. Although it is much slower!!
- Today, cables connect all continents and are still a main hub of telecommunications.
- Telephones exchanges provide the backbone of Internet connections today.
- Modems provide Digital to Audio conversions to allow computers to connect over the telephone network.
- The start of global telecommunications. Satellites play an important role in transmitting all sorts of data today.
- In response, US forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in science and technology applicable to the military.
- As we will see later the Internet relies on packets to transfer data.
- The origin is military : for utmost security in transferring information of networks (no single outage point).
- Data is split into tiny packets that may take different routes to a destination.
- Hard to eavesdrop on messages.
- More than one route available -- if one route goes down another may be followed.
- Networks can withstand large scale destruction (Nuclear attack - This was the time of the Cold War).
Why is this relevant?
- First node at UCLA (Los Angeles) closely followed by nodes at Stanford Research Institute, UCSB (Santa Barbara) and U of Utah (4 Nodes).
- 15 nodes (23 hosts) on ARPANET.
- E-mail invented -- a program to send messages across a distributed network. Why is this relevant?
- E-mail is still the main way of inter-person communication on the Internet today.
- We will study how to use and send E-mail shortly in this course.
- You will make extensive use of E-mail for the rest of your life.
- First public demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines.
- Internet Working Group (INWG) created to address need for establishing agreed upon protocols.Why is this relevant?
- Telnet specification
- Telnet is still a relevant means of inter-machine connection today.
- First international connections to the ARPANET: University College of London (England) and Royal Radar Establishment (Norway)
- Ethernet outlined -- this how local networks are basically connected today.
- Internet ideas started.
- Gateway architecture sketched on back of envelope in hotel lobby in San Francisco. Gateways define how large networks (maybe of different architecture) can be connected together.
- File Transfer protocol specified -- how computers send and receive data.
- Transmission Control Program (TCP) specified. Packet network Intercommunication -- the basis of Internet Communication.
- Telenet, a commercial version of ARPANET, opened -- the first public packet data service.
- Queen Elizabeth sends out an e-mail.
- UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs and distributed with UNIX.Why is this relevant?
- UNIX was and still is the main operating system used by universities and research establishments.
- These machines could now ``talk'' over a network.
- Networking exposed to many users worldwide.
- Number of hosts breaks 100.
- THEORYNET provides electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using a locally developed E-mail system and TELENET for access to server).
- Mail specification
- First demonstration of ARPANET/Packet Radio Net/SATNET operation of Internet protocols over gateways.
- Computer Science Department research computer network established in USA.
- USENET established using UUCP.Why is this relevant?
- USENET still thrives today.
- A collection of discussions groups, news groups.
- 3 news groups established by the end of the year
- Almost any topic now has a discussion group.
- First MUD (Multiuser Dungeon) -- interactive multiuser sites. Interactive adventure games, board games, rich and detailed databases.
- ARPA establishes the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB).
- Packet Radio Network (PRNET) experiment starts with ARPA funding. Most communications take place between mobile vans.
- BITNET, the "Because It's Time NETwork" Started as a cooperative network at the City University of New York, with the first connection to Yale
- Provides electronic mail and listserv servers to distribute information, as well as file transfers
- CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) established to provide networking services (specially E-mail) to university scientists with no access to ARPANET. CSNET later becomes known as the Computer and Science Network.
- DCA and ARPA establishes the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, for ARPANET.Why is this relevant?
- 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.
- EUnet (European UNIX Network) is created by EUUG to provide E-mail and USENET services. Original connections between the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and UK
- External Gateway Protocol specification -- EGP is used for gateways between (different architecture) networks.
- Name server developed.Why is this relevant?
- Large number of nodes.
- Hard to remember exact paths.
- Use meaningful names instead.
- Desktop workstations come into being.Why is this relevant?
- Many with Berkeley UNIX which includes IP networking software.
- Need switches from having a single, large time sharing computer connected to Internet per site, to connection of an entire local network.
- Internet Activities Board (IAB) established, replacing ICCB.
- Berkeley releases new version of UNIX 4.2BSD incorporating TCP/IP.
- EARN (European Academic and Research Network) established on similar lines to BITNET.
- Number of hosts breaks 1,000.
- Domain Name Server (DNS) introduced.
- instead of 123.456.789.10
- it is easier to remember something like www.myuniversity.mydept.mynetwork.mycountry
( e.g. www.cs.cf.ac.uk).
- JANET (Joint Academic Network) established in the UK
- Moderated newsgroups introduced on USENET.
- 5, 000 Hosts. 241 News groups.
- NSFNET created (backbone speed of 56 Kbps)
- NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide high-computing power for all -- This allows an explosion of connections, especially from universities.
- Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) designed to enhance Usenet news performance over TCP/IP.
- Number of hosts 28,000.
- UUNET is founded with Usenix funds to provide commercial UUCP and Usenet access.
- NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544 Mbps).
- Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed.
- Number of hosts breaks 100,000
- First relays between a commercial electronic mail carrier and the Internet.
- Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) comes into existence under the IAB.
- 300,000 Hosts. 1,000 News groups.
- ARPANET ceases to exist.
- Archie released files can be searched and retrieved (FTP) by name.
- The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the first commercial provider of Internet dial-up access.
- Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed after NSF lifts restrictions on the commercial use of the Net.
- Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) Why is relevant?
- Provides a mechanism for indexing and accessing information on the Internet.
- Large bodies of knowledge available: E-mail messages, text, electronic books, Usenet articles, computer code, image, graphics, sound files, databases etc..
- These form the basis of the index of information we see on WWW today.
- Powerful search techniques implemented. Keyword search.
- Gopher released by Paul Lindner and Mark P. McCahill from the U of Minnesota. Why is relevant?
- Text based, menu-driven interface to access internet resources.
- No need to remember or even know complex computer command. User Friendly Interface (?).
- Largely superseded by WWW, these days.
- World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim Berners-Lee developer. Why is relevant?
- Originally developed to provide a distributed hypermedia system.
- Easy access to any form of information anywhere in the world.
- Initially non-graphic (this came later, MOSAIC, 1993).
- Revolutionised modern communications and even our, way of life (?).
- NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736 Mbps). NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion packets/month
- Start of JANET IP Service (JIPS) using TCP/IP within the UK academic network.
- Number of hosts breaks 1 Million. News groups 4,000
- Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered.
- First MBONE audio multicast (March) and video multicast (November).
- The term "Surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly.
- Number of Hosts 2 Million. 600 WWW sites.
- InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet services:
- directory and database services
- registration services
- information services
- Business and Media really take notice of the Internet.
- US White House and United Nations (UN) comes on-line.
- Mosaic takes the Internet by storm. Why is this relevant?
- User Friendly Graphical Front End to the World Wide Web.
- Develops into Netscape -- most popular WWW browser to date.
- WWW proliferates at a 341,634
- Number of Hosts 3 Million. 10,000 WWW sites. 10,000 News groups.
- ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary.
- Local communities begin to be wired up directly to the Internet (Lexington and Cambridge, Mass., USA).
- US Senate and House provide information servers.
- Shopping malls, banks arrive on the Internet:
- A new way of life.
- You can now order pizza from the Hut online in the US.
- First Virtual, the first cyberbank, open up for business.
- NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month
- WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd most popular service on the Net (behind ftp-data) based on % of packets and bytes traffic distribution on NSFNET
- UK's HM Treasury on-line (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/).
- 6.5 Million Hosts, 100,000 WWW Sites.
- NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main US backbone traffic now routed through interconnected network providers
- WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as the service with greatest traffic on NSFNet based on packet count, and in April based on byte count.
- Traditional online dial-up systems (Compuserve, America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access.
- A number of Net related companies go public, with Netscape leading the pack.
- Registration of domain names is no longer free.
- Technologies of the Year: WWW, Search engines (WAIS development).
- New WWW technologies Emerge Technologies:
- Mobile code (JAVA, JAVAscript, ActiveX),
- Virtual environments (VRML),
- Collaborative tools (CU-SeeMe)
- 12.8 Million Hosts, 0.5 Million WWW Sites.
- Internet phones catch the attention of US telecommunication companies who ask the US Congress to ban the technology (which has been around for years).
- The WWW browser war begins, fought primarily between Netscape and Microsoft, has rushed in a new age in software development, whereby new releases are made quarterly with the help of Internet users eager to test upcoming (beta) versions.
- 19.5 Million Hosts, 1 Million WWW sites, 71,618 Newsgroups.
source (http://www.netvalley.com/archives/mirrors/davemarsh-timeline-1.htm)
