by Sohail Ashraf

Created on: June 29, 2009

Internet derived from the words, Interconnection and Network can also be defined as The Network of Networks. Often simply referred as the Net, it connects thousand of networks with unprecedented integration of capabilities enabled by telegraph, telephone, radio, fiber optics, satellite communications and computer. A whole lot of interesting and varied information is accessible to everyone through this information superhighway in no time. Internet has brought about an historic revolution by providing worldwide personal access to broadcasting and receiving information without any geographical limitations. That is why it is the most trusted means of communication for information dissemination, collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers.

History of Internet

Internet is not owned or controlled by any single person, service, corporation, university or government, rather it evolved through efforts of combined but independent efforts by multiple governments, corporations, industries and the academic circles. It evolved and grew as individual LANs were connected to it one after the other. Nevertheless, the important events in history of the Internet may still be traced back as follows: -

(a) ARPANET. In the late 1960s, military computers were linked to create a network for U.S Defense Department. The Network was named ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). The aim was to connect the computers in such a way that if some computers on the network are offline or broken, the remaining computers would still be able to communicate with each other.

(b) NSFNET. In mid eighties, NSFNET was created by the National Science Foundation using the technology earlier developed for ARPANET. The aim was to interlink the universities and schools together. Nevertheless, as the network hosted more and more information and requirements of data transfer rate enhanced, National Science Foundation had to improve, NSFNET in 1987. This improved high-speed network was foundation of the today's Internet.

(c) Public Access. Up till late eighties, Internet was mostly accessed by the selected scientist and researchers. In early nineties, many commercial companies started to offer access to home users. From then onwards, anyone with a modem and a computer was able to access the Internet.

(d) World Wide Web. In 1991 the high energy physics research center in Switzerland created the World Wide Web for publishing research papers on Particle Physics. WWW or W3 or simply the Web was aimed at providing easy access to information by the researchers as well as to provide them opportunity to share their work. Web was made publicly accessible after creation of a public website in 1993. Today, Web consists of a huge collection of documents stored on computers around the world connected through more than one million Web serves.

More about History of Internet

You may also use these links to find more about the history of Internet

(if not activated, copy these links and paste in Internet explorer address bar)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

http://www.netvalley.com/intval/07262/main.htm?sdf=1

http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html

http://www.historyoftheinternet.com/

http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

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