Information Renaissance: The History of the Internet
In an earlier post, I wrote about the how Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. Although today many use the phrases Internet and World Wide Web as synonymous terms, they are technically two different entities. The Internet is simply the giant interconnecting computer network that links millions of computers from all over the globe. It is comprised of the actual connections between the different computers, and different services operate on top of this interconnecting network. One such service is the World Wide Web, which runs on the internet and is a collection of documents that are linked via hypertext. Other examples of services that run on top of the Internet are e-mail and file sharing.
The Internet as we know it today began as ARPANET, which was created by the United States Department of Defense. ARPANET was designed as a network that could survive a nuclear attack. This was possible by using packet-switching technology and a distributed network, which resulted in a communications network that had no centralized location, and would still function even if parts of it were destroyed or damaged. Packet-switched networks send traffic through a variety of different routes in order to reach the desired destination. If one route is destroyed, the packets are automatically re-routed to the destination via an alternate route.
The term “Internet” was first used in 1974, and was used to describe any network of computers using TCP/IP protocols. The Internet today still uses the TCP/IP protocols. Early activity on the Internet consisted mostly of email use, until the emergence of World Wide Web pages.
It is interesting to think that the Internet, which would eventually lead to a drastic change in the way the world communicated, began as a military project as a defense from nuclear attack. If you’re interested in reading more about the development of the Internet, the Internet Society features a variety of links on its webpage, and you can view it here.