The Internet can be called one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century. The World Wide Web has changed people's lives by expanding access to information and making remote contacts easier. The history of the Internet is just over 60 years old - during this time, from a bold and almost fantastic idea, intercomputer communication has turned into an everyday reality.
The first local area networks
For the first time the idea of creating an information network between computers was expressed in 1960 by Joseph Lyklider, head of the computer department of the US Department of Homeland Security. In 1962, together with his colleague Welden Clark, he published the first scientific article on online communication.
6 years after the idea was voiced, the first practical developments began. The predecessor of the Internet was the ARPANET project. It was developed on the basis of the laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Berkeley. In 1969, the first data packet was sent over the ARPANET.
Only small text messages could be sent over the first communication channel, since the computers were not powerful enough.
The network has evolved gradually. By 1981, more than 200 computers were connected to it, mainly related to scientific institutes and laboratories. Since the seventies, the development of special software for remote computer communication began. One of the first such programs was written by scientist Steve Crocker. ARPANET existed autonomously until 1983, after which this network was connected to the TCP / IP protocol and became part of the future global Internet.
Along with the ARPANET, other LAN projects also emerged. In France, the information and scientific network CYCLADES was developed, launched in 1973. A little later, Fidonet appeared - the first network that became really popular among amateur users.
TCP / IP and WAN Creation
Those who tried to create local networks eventually faced the issue of incompatibility of data transfer protocols. This problem was solved at the Stanford Research Institute, where the TCP / IP protocol was developed in 1978. By the mid-eighties, this protocol had superseded all others within the ARPANET.
The very name of the Internet appeared in the seventies in connection with the development of the TCP / IP protocol.
In the second half of the eighties, the consolidation of local networks continued. The LANs of NASA and other US government organizations have switched to TCP / IP. European scientific institutes also began to connect to the common network. At the end of the eighties, it was the turn of the countries of Asia and the states of the socialist bloc - the first network widespread in the USSR was Fidonet, but the Internet over time began to play an increasingly significant role.
Since the nineties, the Internet has ceased to be exclusively a tool of scientists and government organizations - the number of amateur users began to grow, which continues to this day.
