HOW THE INTERNET CAME TO BE

The internet began in the 1960's as a means of connecting together a U.S. Defence Department network called ARPAnet and other radio and satellite networks. It was designed to support military research, in particular research about how to build computer networks that could withstand partial outages (like a bomb attack) and still function. The US Defence Forces needed to find a way to maintain a communications network that wouldn't rely on a central hub. They needed a network where if one sector went down the entire communication would not be lost.

Thus they began working with scientists and researchers on ways to link computers via telephone lines. The main organization looking after this was "Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The technology they were experimenting with was "packet switching". This allowed several users to share the same communications line as data was sent in packets each containing information on the address of the destination computer.

These packets of data were named "Internet Protocol (IP) Packets". These packets reassembled themselves at the other end into a message that the computer could use. This system became known as "ARPANET". At the start it was the University Computer experts that used the network the most, sending each other e-mail and gradually they even found a way to chat to one another in real time from one computer to another. These on-line talks began as scientific discussions but as soon as people realized the power of this real time chat it branched out into every other field.

In the 1970's ARPA helped to develop the rules (protocols), for transferring data between different types of computer networks. These internet protocols made it possible to develop the world-wide net that exists today linking all sorts of computers across the world.

By the end of the 1970's, links were developed to counterparts in other countries all over the world and the world became united in a "Computer Web".

In the late 80's, the National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the NSFNET using IP protocol and created five super-computer centres to be used for education research but they realized that they could not connect every university directly to the one centre. So they decided to create regional networks: in each area of the country, schools would be connected to their nearest neighbour. Each chain was connected to a super-computer centre at one point and the centres were connected to each other. With this configuration, any computer could communicate with any other by forwarding the conversation through its neighbours. Eventually, network traffic increased to the point that the telephone lines and the computers controlling them were overloaded. In 1987 this network was upgraded with faster phone lines and faster computers to control it.

Today the demand keeps growing. The Net is growing at an astronomical rate and more and more people world-wide are beginning to utilize and understand the opportunities present in a global network of computers and people.

It is estimated that the net grows by at least 15% each month! Plans are now in the works for another major upgrade to be able to control another overload on the net. In the past few years the net has become very much mainstream but many people are still struggling to comprehend how it can benefit them and what exactly they can do on-line.


Hopefully the FAQ's that follow may be able to answer some of your questions and help you to better understand what, why and where about the internet and WWW.

 
WHAT IS THE INTERNET? Global network of computers linked via phone cables and optic fibres.

The Internet is a network of computers (over one million) all over the world which are linked together by telephone cables and optic fibres. Some of these computers are connected permanently to the internet and host a collection of data that can be accessed by net users. This world-wide data network is what many people call "The Information Superhighway". Once you have an internet connection you can access any of the information and you can also provide your own information for other people to access world-wide.

 
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE INTERNET & THE WWW? *URL: Uniform Resource Locator
*WEB-WWW: The World Wide Web

The *INTERNET* is the the actual machine part, the part you need to be able to access the *WWW*. The "World Wide Web" otherwise known as "The Web" is the actual information part. The *Information SuperHighway*. The part that allows potential customers to shop world-wide, continuously opens up new possibilities in global marketing, allows you to show and sell your product or share your information with millions of other net users *(surfers)* world-wide. It allows you to chat and make new friends world-wide, send mail at the cost of a local phone call, search for any information you may need for school, work or fun. It is like a huge Encyclopaedia with everything you can think of and it is being constantly updated daily, even hourly.

 
WHO USES THE INTERNET? *NET: The Internet

Millions of people from all over the world use The Net, accessing all sorts of information from reference to purchasing products on-line. Since 1994 commercialized growth has been explosive and today there are more than 120 million users on the Net. A survey that was conducted came up with these demographics: *87% are male. *Most users are aged between 20 and 44. *A majority of current users have tertiary qualifications. *The median incomes are much higher than the national average. *Most Internet users have used a computer for more than 6 years. *A large majority are willing to try on-line banking and on-line shopping. *The majority of people use it at least once a day. *There are many different reasons for going on-line, but entertainment, email and research are the key reasons. *A significant number of home based businesses have access to the Internet.