Background and History of the Internet

Page Three

"When, why and how did the internet begin?"

Internet Anarchy

Some say the Internet represents functional anarchy. As yet there is no "mega internet corporation", no board of directors, no stockholders, no official censors (yet), no supervisors and very little governmental control. All computers on the Internet speak as a peer to any other node, as long as it uses the TCP/IP protocols. The Internet still remains one of simple or perhaps nearly complete freedom. Many users fear that these days are numbered. Internet access is also a bargain. The Internet allows communication to any computer on the planet that is hooked to it. For the most part worldwide, unlike the phone system, the internet doesn't charge for long-distance service. Many users in the United States pay a small ($9.95 to 21.95) monthly fee for 150 hours to unlimited access. The "internet" itself, which doesn't even officially exist as an entity, can't "charge" for anything. That does not mean that individual providers haven't figured ways to bill the user to enter special member areas, download certain information, pay additional monthly fees to join exclusive clubs or pay slightly inflated prices to shop on the internet. To be fair, some excellent bargains can also be found in internet purchases. While researching the information for the "web history" the following paragraph was found posted on the internet.

"the internet's "anarchy" may seem strange or even unnatural, but it makes a certain deep and basic sense. it's rather like the "anarchy" of the english language. nobody rents english, and nobody owns english. as an english-speaking person, it's up to you to learn how to speak english properly and make whatever use you please of it (though the government provides certain subsidies to help you learn to read and write a bit). otherwise, everybody just sort of pitches in, and somehow the thing evolves on its own, and somehow turns out workable. and interesting. fascinating, even. though a lot of people earn their living from using and exploiting and teaching english, "English" as an institution is public property, a public good. much the same goes for the internet. would english be improved if the "The English Language, Inc." had a board of directors and a chief executive officer, or a president and a congress? there'd probably be a lot fewer new words in english, and a lot fewer new ideas."

Some might argue that it should be re-written to be more globally correct and generalized to make it less focused to the English language. There was no reason to change or add to the above, it captures the essence of the internet better than anything I have read or could write. It would be nice to give credit to the writer. The quote was posted to an .edu site. When returning to the bookmark to see if the author could tracked down, it was no longer posted.

Many internet users, both newcomers and veterans who have been around since the beginning, bristle at the commercialization of the internet. The common posting is "nobody owns anything posted to the internet". Many recent civil court cases over the use of trademarks and copyrighted images have shown the courts feel differently. Multimillion dollar judgements have been filed against those who felt that the posting and re-postings on the internet were fair game for commercial internet use. Some hackers have been known to do damage to sites that deal in internet commerce. Various groups all want to control or mold the future of the internet. Businesses want to use the Internet for commerce of every kind. Federal, state and local governments look at the internet as either a source of revenue or a scary problem they would like to legislate into submission. Academics want it dedicated exclusively to scholarly research. Much is said lately about the computer networks used by banks and the Federal government being the new point of attack by hackers, and terrorist alike. The military wants it spy-proof and secure. The users want it fast and cheap!

All these sources of conflict struggle with the Internet which, so far, remains in a thrivingly anarchical condition. At the beginning, the NSFnet's high-speed, high-capacity lines were known as the "Internet Backbone," and their owners could control the internet; today there are "backbones" in canada, japan, and europe, and privately owned commercial internet backbones specially created for carrying commercial traffic. in fact a plan to list some of the new backbones revealed so many new ones and new ones to come that it is safe to say capacity is rushing to keep up with demand. privately owned desktop computers can become internet nodes. laptops and cellular phone bring the internet to travelers throughout the world.

But what does a surfer do on the Internet? Basically six things, communication, discussion groups, long-distance computing, gathering information, file transfers and commerce.

Internet communication is "e-mail," electronic mail, faster by several orders of magnitude than the United States Post Office, which is scornfully known by surfers as "snailmail." Internet mail is somewhat like a fax. It's electronic text. But you don't have to pay long distance charges for it (at least not now), and it's global in scale. E-mail can also send software and digital imagery. If e-mail has a downside it is that the Multilevel marketing, chain letter, get rich quick and quick buck marketers have found it. Most e-mail users have begun to complain about the " spam" that has been filling their inboxes in the recent past. local, state and federal legislation has started down the road of control. my personal favorite method for dealing with this unwanted intrusion is two fold. first don't do business with anyone who uses it and second a quick "Shift-Delete".

The discussion groups, or "newsgroups," are a world of their own. This world of news, debate and argument is generally known as "usenet. " USENET is, in point of fact, quite different from the Internet. USENET is rather like an enormous billowing crowd of gossipy, news-hungry people, wandering in and through the Internet on their way to various private backyard barbecues. USENET is not so much a physical network as a set of social conventions. In any case, at the moment there are more than 41,000 separate newsgroups on USENET. Naturally there is a vast amount of talk about computers on USENET, but the variety of subjects discussed is enormous, and it's growing larger all the time. USENET also distributes various free electronic journals and publications.

Long-distance computing was an original inspiration for ARPANET and is still a very useful service, at least for some. Programmers can maintain accounts on distant, powerful computers, run programs there or write their own. Scientists can make use of powerful supercomputers a continent away. Libraries offer their electronic card catalogs for free search. Enormous CD-ROM catalogs are increasingly available through this service. And there are fantastic amounts of free software available.

Gathering information, file transfers and commerce are much more difficult to separate. The Internet allows the surfer remote access to computers and computer databases all over the world. A student can use this to gather information for school or a person can research information about a disease process or a receipt. Not only can the information be read, it can be downloaded and saved on the local computer. A few years ago Internet programs, such as "archie," "gopher," and "WAIS," were developed to catalog and explore this enormous archive of material and information. more than 1,000 search engines provide that information. now search engines and companies using push technology assist in this search for information and images. many internet computers allow any person to access them anonymously, and to simply copy their public files, free of charge. while much of the internet remains free, business has found that people will pay to get to this same information. commerce is a large and ever growing part of the internet. not only is information, images and memberships being sold today, many direct mail and television sales companies have joined the $ales on the internet. most major and minor business have some type of internet presence. some provide just information, while others offer all types of products in direct sales. a recent prediction for the automotive industry was that in the next 10 years 50% of all new car sales would move to the internet. internet file-transfers are becoming a new form of publishing, in both music and tradition text form. the surfer simply transfers or downloads the work on demand, in any quantity he or she wants.

The headless, anarchic, million-limbed Internet is spreading like bread-mold. Any computer of sufficient power is a potential "node" for the Internet, and today such computers sell for less than $1,000 and are in the hands of people all over the world. ARPA's network, designed to assure control of a ravaged society after a nuclear holocaust, has been superceded by its mutant child the Internet, which is thoroughly out of control, and spreading exponentially through the post-Cold War electronic global village. The spread of the Internet in the 90s resembles the spread of personal computing in the 1970s, though it is even faster and perhaps more important. More important, perhaps, because it may give those personal computers a means of cheap, easy storage and access that is truly planetary in scale.

The future of the Internet is to be bigger and exponentially faster. Commercialization of the Internet is a very hot topic today, with every manner of wild new commercial information-service promised. The federal government, pleased with an unsought success, is also still very much in the act. NREN, the "National Research and Education Network, was approved by the US Congress in fall 1991, as a five-year, $2 billion project to upgrade the Internet "backbone."

NREN will be some fifty times faster than the fastest network available today, allowing the electronic transfer of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in one hot second. Computer networks worldwide will feature 3-D animated graphics, radio and cellular phone-links to portable computers, as well as fax, voice, and high- definition television. A multimedia global circus!

Or so it's hoped -- and planned. The real Internet of the future may bear very little resemblance to today's plans. Planning has never seemed to have much to do with the seething, fungal development of the Internet. After all, today's Internet bears little resemblance to those original grim plans for RAND's post- holocaust command grid. It's a fine and happy irony.

How does one get access to the Internet? Well -- if you don't have a computer and a modem, get one. Your computer will act as a terminal, and you can use an ordinary telephone line to connect to an Internet-linked provider. Many companies offer free internet connections. These slower and simpler adjuncts to the Internet can provide you with the netnews discussion groups and your own e-mail address. Some companies even provide full access at "no charge". These are services worth having -- though if you only have mail and news, you're not actually "on the internet" proper. The real cost is having either type of "free" Internet is to be fed advertisements while using the service.

Businesses called ISPs have been created all over the country providing true Internet access, that they are willing to sell to subscribers. The average access fee is about $20 a month – less than cable or satellite TV service. If you're on a campus, your university will have direct "dedicated access" to high-speed Internet TCP/IP lines. Apply for an Internet account on a dedicated campus machine, and you may be able to get those hot-dog long-distance computing and file-transfer functions. Off campus you can usually log on to the university system through a phone modem port or back through an internet connection. In most cities, the public libraries, supply a "freenet" or community access.

The couch potatoes have even been invited into the internet with dedicated boxes about the size of a VCR that allows internet access for your standard television. These TV terminals do provide internet access but have optional limited or no storage capacity. A keyboard that is essential for e-mail is also an option. They offer a window to the internet that may bring in even more people.

High Speed Internet Access.

He said WHAT?

During the Presidential Election for 2000 much was made about a statement made by Vice President (candidate) Al Gore. That statement quickly reached the proportions of an Urban Myth. What did he really say and how much truth was in the statement. Want to know the truth rather than just relate the popular urban myth. Click here. While this article doesn't completely clear his name it is nice to know the whole story.

Next in this series is the background and story of chat and news groups. Watch for it.

Internet Glossary

For some Free Internet Goodies, (Fonts, Clip Art and Information) Stop By: RLPG's Web Site.

Other interesting web sites covering the history of the Internet:

The Internet: Past, Present and Future
By: Jesper Vissing Laursen

Telecom History - A Timeline
By: Lars Aronsson

A Tale of Two Networks: Early Data Communications
Experiments in England and America
By: Janet Abbate, IEEE History Center

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