Internet History Essays - Computing, Technology,

Internet History Starting out as a small military experiment some 35 years ago, the Internet is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of communication. With a present population of about 40 million users world wide, it seems to have a very promising future. Uncensored and almost impossible to monitor, it's a breeding ground for all sorts of offensive and derogatory information. On the other hand, it is probably the biggest single source of data in the world brought home into your personal computer. Will this form of communication survive in the future, or will it simply die out like many others have in the past? History The first nodes of the Internet were built 36 years ago by the RAND corporation. They faced the problem of keeping communication between U.S. authorities active in the aftermath of a nuclear war. The country needed a command-and-control network. The biggest problem was protecting the main server, which could be knocked out by a single atomic warhead. RAND came up with the solution in 1964. The new network would have no central authority, and secondly, it would be designed to operate in shambles. " During the 60s, this intriguing concept of a decentralized, blastproof, packet-switching network was kicked around by RAND, MIT and UCLA. The National Physical Laboratory in Great Britain set up the first test network on these principles in 1968. Shortly afterward, the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency decided to fund a larger, more ambitious project in the USA. The nodes of the network were to be high-speed supercomputers (or what passed for supercomputers at the time). These were rare and valuable machines which were in real need of good solid networking, for the sake of national research- and-development projects." (Sterling 1-2) The first was put in place during the fall of 1969. By December of the same year four nodes were installed. They were connected by dedicated high-speed transmission lines. This allowed the computers to communicate and be programmed from one of the other computers. In the year of 1971 there were 15 nodes, and by 72 there were 37. This number kept increasing rapidly as the years passed. The network was also becoming more of a person to person way of communicating. Many military personnel began using it as a way to gossip with friends instead of a way to transmit documents and projects. This became even more evident in the following years. How it works The Internet may seem a very complex form of communication but that is not really the case. First, you must have a reasonably fast computer (80386 or higher) with a modem and a phone line. The next step is to contact your local Internet provider and get him to give you a password and an SLIP address. At this time you will also be given the software to get you started. All of this costs about 140 dollars, depending on how many hours you wish to purchase. "We charge using an hourly rate because it gives our users more flexibility with their time. When run on a monthly payment, you are limited to an hour a day, whereas with our system you can use any amount of time whenever you want" (Schulmeister). The costs are as follows: 10 hrs-$30.00 20 hrs-$50.00 40 hrs-$80.00 60 hrs-$90.00 Once you have your software installed and want to start "surfing the net," you must first login to the server (located at the Northwest Community College) by dialling in its phone number using a specific program. The two local numbers are 638-1543 and 638-1593. Even with the two numbers, the server is often busy because of the constantly increasing number of users in our area. These numbers can be used by a number of people at a time, not just two. Once connected to the college server, you travel down to a larger server in Vancouver, and from there you can access any other computer connected as long as your server has permission to do so. Diagram: How the Internet works Impact on Society The Internet is just starting to have a large impact on society. It seemed to come out of nowhere, popping up in magazines and on the news. The Internet is now becoming an influential communications medium to