This report describes the history of the Internet. The report shows how the Internet was started and outlines the progress the Internet has made over the years.The World Just Got SmallerThe Internet is not as new as you may think; today’s “information super highway” began as a bunch of converging footpaths in the 1960s. Many people credit the ARPAnet (the first computer network designed by the Advances Research Projects Agency) as the starting point of the Internet we all have come to know and love today, however this is not entirely true. It would be more accurate to say that the Internet grew from a number of indigenous technologies, which first started as ARPAnet, and then developed over the next thirty years to become what it is today. There have been enormous changes in the development of the Internet since it began in the 1960s revolutionizing the way people communicate and do business.The “Internet,” as defined by Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopaedia is the “interconnection of computer networks that enables connected machines to communicate directly. The term popularly refers to a particular global interconnection of government, education, and business computer networks that is available to the public. There are also smaller Internets usually for the private use of a single organization, called intranets. The fact that the Internet was created was a big surprise to the top leaders in computer technology. IBM president Thomas J. Watson declared, “There is a world market for about five computers,” in 1943. When Watson made this statement, he was being quite accurate. At the time, computers were not very practical, they were large, difficult to maintain and tremendously costly, the idea of linking these things together was unthinkable. Sputnik 1The Sputnik was a major breakthrough, by launching this piece of metal into orbit; the Soviet Union proved its dominance in space technology. ...
