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the elements of the Net
email
irc
usenet
www
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The history of Internet started in US military laboraties and was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), founded by the US Department of Defense. In those days the net was called "ARPAnet". It was created to guarantee communication in case of war. So called routers will find alternative ways to send information (as data packages) if the direct way is destroyed. The use ot the 1969 started public net was first restricted to computer experts, specialists and some scientists that were able to deal with the very difficult and complex system and its special language.
The Internet as a public one actually started in December 1969, as four major computers at universities in the south-western United States were connected. One year later, 17 network computers were connected, including the one at NASA. The Internet matured in the 70's as a result of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which is still used. It was adopted by the US Defence Department in 1980, and universally adopted in 1983. The usage of TCP/IP is what unites all elements of the net.
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Birth of Usenet and email
The UNIX to UNIX Copy Protocol (UUCP) was invented in 1978 at Bell Labs. Usenet was started in 1979, based on UUCP. Newsgroups, the topic focused discussion groups, followed as means of exchanging information throughout the world . While Usenet is not considered as part of the Internet, since it does not use TCP/IP, it linked UNIX systems, and many Internet sites took advantage of the availability of newsgroups. A significant part of the community building that took place within the networks was to integrate newsgroups with the Internet. "Because It's Time Network" (BITNET), which connected IBM machines especially in the educational community, began providing electronic mail services in 1981. Gateways were developed to connect BITNET with the Internet and to allow exchange of email.
As the commands for email, ftp, and telnet were standardised,
it became a lot easier for non-technicians to learn how to use the net
and open up use of the Internet to many more people, in particular at
universities. Libraries started to make their catalogues available to
the world. As more and more universities, libraries and organisations
connected, the Internet became harder and harder to track. There was a
need for tools to make available resources searchable. The story about
the searchable net, the reason for creating this web site, you will find
at the research techniques page.
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The umbrella network
You still want to know what the hell this Internet is about? That's relatively easy to say: It's everything in computer communication outside your own computer. Internet is the vast network that connects many independent networks in which computers are connected with each other. The Internet is the umbrella network where millions of computers in more than 170 countries are using servers to communicate with each other, search for information, send messages and make your information accessible. The one thing all the computers connected to the Internet have in common is the use of the Internet Protocol, abbreviated as IP. It allows computers of different types to communicate with each other. Your own computer uses TCP/IP, which stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP software enables it to link to services and networks on the Internet.
Who owns the Internet?
The Internet itself is free of ownership. Neither private persons nor corporations nor organisations nor governments own it. Therefore it's free for every kind of information so far. The technical equipment - like computers, servers, routers, cables and so on - is of course owned by all kinds of organisations, companies, governments and so forth. The Internet is continuously being developed by people and organisations, that voluntarily work out standards for technical needs to run the net. Decisions are made by Internet organisations like InterNic, which also is responsible for all domain names (URLs) of web sites. They are searchable on InterNic, which makes it possible to check your Internet sources (see our description on how to do that).
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