A Brief Historyof the Internet

First established in the mid 60's, the Internet was developed as a way for several universities and research centers to exchange information in an efficient manner. There is a persistent myth among Internet users, that the "Net" was designed by the military and that its main purpose was to enable communications in the event of a nuclear attack. Not only not true, but this mythology is directly countered by the fact that nuclear weapons create a strong magnetic pulse when detonated; this pulse destroys any electronic device in its path... such as a computer.

During the 80's, the network expanded to include just about every university and college in the country as well as much of the federal government and some corporations. The primary users were researchers and students. Students utilized the e-mail capabilities and provided much of the impetus for creating newsgroups where information on a specific subject could be discussed. In the 20 or so years that the Internet existed prior to being opened to commercial interests, there were less than 250,000 users worldwide; by late 1996 the estimated user base exceeded 25 million. Currently (2006) there are an estimated 1 billion users world wide and about 12 billion web pages.

In the early 90's, two events changed the face of the Internet forever. The first was the introduction of the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) by Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN in Switzerland. The second, assuredly enabled by the first, was the opening of the Internet to commercial use, thus opening the gateway to allowing the formation of numerous Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the world.

The Hyper Text Protocol was developed out of a need for researchers to be able to share data, including graphics, in some common format. This format needed to allow for ease in updating and had to be transportable across computer platforms. Tim Lee's solution was elegant and timely.

Once the protocol was in place, the World Wide Web (WWW) was born. It was only a matter of time before commercial interests would take notice and desire to make use of this new, cheap and easy to access medium. In 1993, access was granted to all comers and the Internet explosion began. It is still exploding and the repercussions are being felt worldwide.

Introduction to the Internet

• Brief History of the Internet
  
• Explanation of Terms (definitions)
  
• Areas of the Internet
  
  • Controls
    
  • Settings
    
  • Search Engines
    
  • Shareware and Freeware
    
  • Downloading Files
    
  • Viruses