The change of information has never been so fast and as ample as in the moment when the Internet appeared, half a century ago. The term “Internet’’, an American derivation, comes from ‘’internetting’’ (interlinking networks ) and it was used for the first time in 1972 by Robert E. Kahn, who was an engineer at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – an agency of the SUA defense department ), in an international conference about the communication through computers (ICCC).
The internet represents a global system of interconnected networks which use different protocols, generally TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) for connecting millions of people. The history of the internet began as a network of the Defense Department of the United States in the context of the Cold War, when the competition between the Russians and the Americans became acerbic. One the one hand, the American authorities wanted a sure and fast communication system with the army, in the event of a nuclear war and on the other hand, after the Russian launched the first satellite into space – Sputnik- the president of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower ensured that this kind of actions would never happen again. The Agency of Advanced Research (ARPA) appeared, which had the role to coordinate the technologic research from the entire world. The scientific and military projects which began in the 50’ years became a communication system which was associated with a lot of private academic networks, through optic and electronic technology.
Being a decentralized structure, this network of networks was not owned by anyone, very seldom being confused with www, even if it doesn’t represent the same thing. The internet is a soft and hard infrastructure which allows the interconnectivity of computers. The web on the other hand is a giant database, a huge collection of documents and other resources connected through some hyperlinks.
Chronology
- In 1962, J.C.R. Licklider, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposed for the first time the “galactic network’’ concept of computers. In 1968 ARPA coordinated and sponsored the project of a computers’ network at the Los Angeles University, building a network through the telephone lines, between UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), and the University from Santa Barbara, the research institute from Stanford and Utah University – a predecessor of nowadays’ internet. This happened four years after Ray Tomlinson developed the first program dedicated to e-mail. In 1972, the Network Control Protocol concept was also introduced, for allowing computers which work in the same network to communicate with one another. In 1973, Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn begin the development of the TCP/IP protocol. In 1976 Robert M. Metcalfe developed the internet, and the Queen of Great Britain, Elisabeth the Second, sent the first e-mail, on the 26th of March.
- 1976- AT and T Bell Labs developed UUCP (Unix-To-Unix Copy Protocol – the term refers to series of programs which allow the execution of some actions, the transfer of files, e-mails between computers) and the UNIX system.
- 1979- Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis and Steve Bellovin set-up USENET, the first news network in the world.
- 1979- IBM introduced the BITNET system in order to refine the email system.
- 1983- The TCP/IP protocol becomes the standard protocol used on the internet
- 1983- The DNS (Domain Name System) are introduced, in order to allow all the domains to have unique identification numbers, the IPs
- 1990- The hypertext system is created and implemented by Tim Berners- Lee;
- 1990- The first search engine was created by the McGill University. This was called “Archie Search Engine’’
- 1991- The World Wide Web (www) becomes public on August 6th.
- 1993- The first browser, Mosaic, is launched, which later will be transformed in the reputed Netscape, one of the most popular browsers from the 1990 period
- 1994- Pizza Hut entered the first online order system through the Internet
- 1995- Domains start to be paid (until then they were free)
- 1996- Nokia launched the first mobile phone with Internet connection
- 1999- The wireless technology, called in that period 802.11b, known today as Wi-Fi, is standardized.
- 2001- Blackberry launched the first phone with internet connection from America
- 2004- The Web term 2.0 becomes more popular when O’Reilly and the Media Live supplier organize the first profile conference.
- 2004- The first virus, Mydoom, was launched, which affected one in twelve emails.
- 2005- Youtube is launched
- 2006- Over 92 million websites exist on the internet.
- 2008- Google reaches the fabulous sum of 1 billion URLs.
- 2008- NASA tests successfully the first spatial communication network, built by means of the internet. By using the DSN program (Disruption-Tolerant Networking), hundreds of images from space are delivered to the NASA station, located more than 32 million km distance from the Earth.
- 2010- Facebook announces in February that it has over 400 million active users.
The future of the networks
This public global system was not conceived for operating such a huge amount of data by millions of interconnected networks. As an answer for this problem, experimental networks like Internet one and NGI (Next Generation Internet) were developed, which will be able to help the fast networks of the future. These operate with hybrid optical networks which are not going to replace the global system, but will assure a good environment where main technologies can be developed and elaborated until the moment when they come online. The new technologies will allow the development of some performing applications, extremely advanced bookshops, digital libraries, virtual research laboratories, distance learning, in a very different manner from what we know now.
As the development of the technologies of the future generation continue to pass over the borders of the impossible, the actual internet is improved as well in order to raise the transmission speed of the information, for intensifying the security and for offering different services at different levels.