Invention

The Internet as we know it was originally envisioned by J.C.R. Licklider. He was one of the first to foresee the ways computers could interact. Meanwhile, at MIT, Leonard Kleinrock started to apply queuing theory to computing systems. He showed how data could queue up and transmit through nodes and figured out how to speed up connections by implementing demand access and distributed control. Kleinrock and Licklider’s discoveries showed that the method of telephone circuit systems didn’t have to be the only way communications were executed.

After the Soviets launched Sputnik, Eisenhower created ARPA in 1958 in an attempt to catch up. Computer research was a main government focus until NASA launched and America focused more on beating the Soviets to space.

Since telephone communications could be interrupted easily, the US military feared that it could cause a security breach during a nuclear war. Paul Baran was hired by the US government to try and apply Licklider and Kleinrock’s ideas during the Cold War. Baran created “packet switching,” which is still a main basis of computer communications today. It made it so a message could be passed through as long as at least one node was available.

ARPA scientist Bob Taylor needed a way to log into multiple computer terminals so that he didn’t have to move from computer to computer. He wanted to build a network to make it so one terminal could talk to multiple terminals. He convinced ARPA that networking in this way would save a lot of time and money down the line.

Larry Roberts built the first experimental connections between computers at MIT. He figured out how to create a computer network on paper, and in 1968 he started seeking engineers to build the network he envisioned, called ARPAnet. He had a hard time getting any major company to actually build the project - telephone companies didn’t think it was possible and computer companies didn’t see any revenue potential. Finally, the smaller company BBN, headed by Frank Heart, won the contract. Stephen Crocker wrote the code that connected the first computer in UCLA.

Heart struggled to keep packets from circulating forever within the IMPs (Interface Message Processor). They also had an issue keeping data from overflowing, and had problems getting phone lines to carry this data at all. The team faced many new engineering struggles.

By the end of 1969, the team managed to connect all four computers that they wanted to connect. Eventually, Raymond Tomlinson upped the capabilities of ARPAnet by creating the first email program. Bob Metcalfe, who later invented Ethernet, also worked on ARPAnet. Metcalfe was in charge of compiling a list of what their network could do, and the demo he helped make included text games and mathematical programs.

Network use spread after this demo showcase. At first, all the networks were too different from one another and couldn’t communicate. Vint Cef and Robert E. Kahn created the TCP/IP protocol to allow computers from different networks to communicate. After about ten years, the protocol was adopted as the universal standard.

At first, ARPAnet was only for government use. AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy appeared later for personal usage. In 1992, Congress signed a bill that allowed the Internet to leave the exclusive hands of the government. At the time, there were only 50 web pages. Unfortunately, it was still difficult for the average person to use. Tim Berners-Lee developed the software that became the World Wide Web. It’s interesting that it was created by someone uninvolved with ARPAnet. The World Wide Web still wasn’t accessible to the average user until Marc Andreessen created the browser Mosaic. By the late 90s, the Internet had been completely revolutionized.