What is Internet?

I'm 100% sure that 100% of you are addicted to the internet, and yet very few of us know where it came from, who made it, or how it it works.

Now, in this article first we discuss what is internet than we move on Short History of Internet.

A global system of interconnected computers networks, using standardized Internet Protocol suite for communication and sharing information is called the internet. It connects millions of computers, webpages, websites, and servers. Using the internet we can send emails, photos, videos, messages to our loved ones.

Short History of Internet

Unlike inventions such as the lightbulb. the internet wasn't invented by a single genius inventor but evolved. It all started in the 1950s in the US, deep into the cold war.

On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched a satellite into orbit. While Sputnik didn't do much except relaying some beeps from its radio transmitters, it triggered a re-thinking in the US. Researchers in the states had focused on making better TVs and bigger cars, so the enemy gained a head-start on space.

In a broader move, technology and science were more deeply embedded into society -- including it into shool curriculums and creating agencies such as NASA and implementing Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA), forming part of the Defence Department.

ARPAnet

One primary concern during the cold war was that just one single missile of the Soviet Union could render the existing phone network unusable. That would mean that states wouldn't be able to communicate with each other in an emergency.

To prevent that, scientists went to work, and in 1962 came up with the first idea of a galactic network that would let world leaders communicate with each other through computers.

In 1995, a scientist came up with a way to enable computer to send information by breaking it into little packets sent via different routes. Else, this way of communication would be just vulnerable as the phone lines. They called this process "Packet Switching".

Arpanet, the government's computer network, was the first to implement this new technology, and finally, on October 29th, 1969, the first node-to-node communication took place. The first message was short, consisting of "LOGIN", but still enough to crash the system. Only first two letters were delivered to the recipient.

Over the next few years, the network kept growing, adding more and more universities, including institutions outside of the US. But with growing number of separate network and increasing participants in the overall network, it became increasingly difficult to bring all of them together.

TCP/IP & the Birth of the World Wide Web (www)

With the Transmission Control Protocol, developed by Vinton Cerf in the 80s, all these networks could communicate. Later he added to it the protocol we all know: Internet Protocol IP. The networks could connect, building a Network of Networks.

Throughout the 80s, the Internet was used mainly by Researchers and academia, through a national initiative by the National Science Foundation, more and more universities connected to it.

Connecting to the Internet was very different from what we know now. Users called a modem via serial port to their computer and used a dial-up service. Internet connectivity was established through phone lines. As long as a user knew the phone number of the connected computer, the could connect to others. With the introduction of the world wid web, this would change.

Depending on how old you are, you might remember the days when you couldn't use the Internet and phone simultaneously.

The Internet was decentralized which no central authority. It still is if you managed to access it in its original form.

In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the world wide web, the "Internet" as we know it. He suggested three technology that we still use today: HTML, URL, and HTTP.

Implementing these meant that all computer could understand each other and paved the way for the first web browser named Mosaic. What followed this fundamental improvement in usability was a flurry of commercial activity.

Commercialization

Initially a nerd-fest, the Internet wasn't spared commercialization. This was driven by the introduction of the personal computer, fuelled by the advances made in integrated circuit technologies. Another development supporting the rapid growth was an increase in local area networks, enabling more and more users (and out of a company's perspective potential customers).

In 1993 federal legislation enabled private businesses to start using the Internet for commercial purposes, and flurry of commercial activities ensued.

As so often, when businesses start competing for a field, centralization follows. Microsoft might come to mind when thinking about the earlier days of the commercial world conquering the world wide web. By bundling Internet Explore with the then leading Operating System running on their workstations, the effectively killed off competition in the browser space.

In the aftermath of the dot-com crash, a few powerful big tech companies emerged.

Roughly two decades fast forward, and "googling" something has become synonymous with searching the web, and 4.2 billion people use Social Media Platforms owned by shockingly small number of companies.

This bring us to Web 2.0. If you think this article is improve your knowledge kindly share this with your friends and family members.