When/how did the Internet get started?

Originally conceived as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Administration Network), it was developed to experiment with networks and to share resources among DOD-funded research contractors. As ARPANET matured, universities everywhere were clamoring to sign up. It eventually evolved into two formidable military and nonmilitary computer networks with thousands of smaller networks joining in.

In the beginning this network was very primitive, having little software that would work over the connections. In 1969 Telnet was created. Telnet allows a user on one computer to log onto a remote computer and run software on that remote computer as if it were on the user's local computer. This allowed users to "electronically" connect to another computer and be able to use the functionality of that computer. It was the "first" Internet application and although very primitive, it is still used in some Internet applications.

The history of the Internet is short --- yet very full of developments. The picture below gives you some idea of the quickness of the growth of the Internet. Notice that it started with 4 computers and now connects 70,000 networks of computers. Each network can have thousands of computers connected!

 

Continue with the next section of the Introduction to the Web Tutorial - What components make up the Internet?