History Of Internet

Let’s begin with a question, So, what is the Internet? The answer must sound very easy however, most people won’t be able to answer it. The Internet is a global network of interconnected computer networks that communicate with each other over the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a network of networks made up of private, public, academic, and government networks ranging from local to global in extent and connected by a diverse set of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.

The Internet holds a huge range of information as well as services like Email, Voice-over IP, Television, Games, File Sharing, Shopping, etc.

History of the Internet

Initially in the 1960s, the Internet was started as a medium for sharing information with government researchers. During the time computers were larger in size and were immovable. In case anyone had to access the information stored in any computer, they had to travel to the location of the computer or the other way to have magnetic computer tapes that could be transported through the postal system of that time.

Alongside, Escalated Cold War played a major role in the creation of the internet. The Soviet Union had deployed the Sputnik satellite which led the Defense Department of the United States to examine the possibilities of communicating information despite nuclear. The situation resulted in the development of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), which, later on, evolved into the Internet. In the initial days, ARPANET became a huge success with restricted participation where it was accessible to academic and research institutions that had contracts with the US Defense Department. The scenario led to the formation of new networks in order to facilitate the need for information sharing with other people.

Earlier there wasn’t any standard mechanism for the computer networks that would enable them to communicate with each other. Transfer Control Protocol (TCP/IP) which was developed in 1970, was adopted as a new communication protocol for ARPANET in 1983. The technology enabled various computers on different networks to communicate with each other and this is how the Internet was officially born on January 1, 1983.

An Overview From 1985 to 1995

The invention of DNS, the widespread usage of TCP/IP, and the popularity of email all contributed to an increase in internet activity. Between 1986 and 1987, the network expanded from 2,000 to 30,000 hosts. People were increasingly using the internet to send messages, read news, and exchange files. However, sophisticated computing knowledge was still required to dial into the system and use it efficiently, and there was still no agreement on how documents on the network should be formatted.

The internet needed to be more user-friendly. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, proposed a solution to his employer, CERN, the international particle-research facility in Geneva, Switzerland. He proposed a new method for organizing and connecting all of the information available on CERN’s computer network, making it quick and easy to access. His idea for a “network of information” evolved into the World Wide Web.

The release of the Mosaic browser in 1993 introduced the web to a new non-academic audience, and people began to learn how simple it was to make their own HTML websites. As a result, the number of websites increased from 130 in 1993 to over 100,000 at the beginning of 1996.

By 1995, the internet and the World Wide Web had become an established phenomenon, with over 10 million global users using the Netscape Navigator. The Netscape Navigator was the most popular browser at that point in time.

What is DNS?

DNS is short for Domain Name System. It functions as the internet’s version of a phone book, converting difficult-to-remember IP addresses into simple names. Cheaper technology and the introduction of desktop computers in the early 1980s facilitated the rapid development of local area networks (LANs). As the number of machines on the network grew, it became impossible to keep track of all the different IP addresses.

The development of the Domain Name System (DNS) in 1983 solved this problem. DNS was invented at the University of Southern California by Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel. It was one of the breakthrough inventions that helped in paving the way for the World Wide Web.

TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

TCP/IP is an acronym that stands for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. The terms refer to a set of protocols that regulate how data flows via a network.

Following the development of ARPANET, new computer networks began to join the network, prompting the need for an agreed-upon set of data-handling standards. Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf, two American computer scientists, in the year 1974 invented a new way of transmitting data packets in a digital envelope known as ‘Datagram’. Any computer can read the datagram’s address, but only the ultimate host system can open the envelope and read the message within.

This technology was dubbed the transmission-control protocol by Kahn and Cerf. TCP enabled computers to communicate in the same language, allowing the ARPANET to evolve into a global interconnected network of networks, an example of ‘internetworking’—written as the “internet” in short.

IP stands for Internet Protocol and when paired with TCP, aids in the routing of internet data. Every internet-connected device is assigned a unique IP address. The number, known as an IP address, can be used to find out the location of any internet-connected device.