The Internet Past Present and Future

The Internet Past Present and Future

Introduction

This report describes the history of the Internet. The report shows how the Internet was started and outlines the progress the Internet has made over the years.

The World Just Got Smaller

The Internet is not as new as you may think; today’s “information super highway” began as a bunch of converging footpaths in the 1960s. Many people credit the ARPAnet (the first computer network designed by the Advances Research Projects Agency) as the starting point of the Internet we all have come to know and love today, however this is not entirely true. It would be more accurate to say that the Internet grew from a number of indigenous technologies, which first started as ARPAnet, and then developed over the next thirty years to become what it is today. There have been enormous changes in the development of the Internet since it began in the 1960s revolutionizing the way people communicate and do business.

The “Internet,” as defined by Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopaedia is the “interconnection of computer networks that enables connected machines to communicate directly. The term popularly refers to a particular global interconnection of government, education, and business computer networks that is available to the public. There are also smaller Internets usually for the private use of a single organization, called intranets.

The fact that the Internet was created was a big surprise to the top leaders in computer technology.

IBM president Thomas J. Watson declared, “There is a world market for about five computers,” in 1943. When Watson made this statement, he was being quite accurate. At the time, computers were not very practical, they were large, difficult to maintain and tremendously costly, the idea of linking these things together was unthinkable.

Sputnik 1

The Sputnik was a major breakthrough, by launching this piece of metal into orbit; the Soviet Union proved its dominance in space technology. It also demonstrated that they had the ability to launch a nuclear warhead from anywhere in the world, at anywhere in the Unites States they desired. Leaders declared that “everything was threatened,” and a defensive response was seriously needed.

The solution became visible to computer engineers, they must come up with a communication system that would not fail even if sections of it...

... middle of paper ...

...ry’s borders. Even if such global control were possible, standards of international ethics and behaviour would need to first be determined.

The Facts

Today the internet is bigger than ever, four websites are created every second, traditional mail is being replaced with email, businesses are handing out less brochures and paper and putting the information on the internet instead, etc. The public is connecting in record numbers: about 75 000 users join the internet every day. In early 1996, more than 25 million computers were interconnected with the internet in over 180 countries, and it continues to increase at an extraordinary rate. 300 million users are expected to join the internet in the next three years!

RealVideo and MP3s are providing consumers with excellent multimedia. The war continues between Microsoft and AOL (the new owners of Netscape) over who can give users the richest browsing experience possible.

The internet has developed extensively over the last 30 years. The internet is now developing faster than ever, who knows where the next few years take us?

Bibliography:

College handouts

Microsoft Encarta 97

WWW.whatis.com

WWW.ask.co.uk