CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

NETWORKING 1
Module 2: History of Internet
by Daniel T. Ursulum, Jr.
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Learning Activity:

1. Lecture/Discussion

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The Internet

• It is a collection of computers that are all connected to each other.

• Some people, typically at universities and large companies, have 24-hour
connections, while others use a modem to link their home computers during a
certain amount of time each day.
• Regardless of the type of connection, once you are on, you and your computer
become a part of the Internet and are linked to every other computer that is also
connected at that moment.

Brief History of the Internet

• The beginnings of the Internet lie in the Cold War. The United States
Department of Defense (DOD) wanted a way to communicate with its bases
in the event of a nuclear war or natural disaster. In 1957, the DOD formed
the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to solve this problem.
• In 1969, four universities connected to each other over ARPANET at a
whopping 50 Kbps. The University of California at Santa Barbara and Los
Angeles, Stanford, and the University of Utah were the first “netizens.”
• By 1973, ARPANET boasted 23 hosts.
• The Internet began as a project in 1973 by the U.S. Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA). At that time, DARPA wanted to
initiate a research program to investigate techniques and technologies for
connecting packet networks of various kinds. DARPA ultimately wanted to
develop communication protocols that would allow networked computers
to talk freely across different platforms and networks. And so ARPAnet was
born.

PROTOCOL: A protocol is nothing more than a set of rules. On the

Internet, it is a set of rules computers used to communicate across

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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

networks. As long as everyone follows the rules, communication can

occur freely.

• In 1974, Vint Cerf an Bob Kahn jointly coined the term Internet.
• 1983 saw the implementation of TCP/IP and DNS.
• ARPAnet, which came to be known simply as the Internet, developed a set
of protocol known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or
TCP/IP. Every computer on the Internet has a unique number, and it is
called the IP address. An IP address is an Internet protocol address.

IP Address: This address is used by Internet Protocol (IP) to identify

each computer on the Internet. An IP address consists of four
numbers between 0 and 255, each separated by period. A typical IP
address might be 192.168.0.1.

But how do computers get IP addresses? An organization called InterNIC

gives them to various Internet Service Providers, or ISPs. These ISPs then
distribute the addresses to computers on their networks.

• The Internet uses domain names to “hide” the hard-to-remember IP

addresses. After all, would you rather remember 192.63.7.45 or www.abs-
cbn.com?

Domain Name: Also registered by InterNIC, the domain name is an

“English version” of an IP address. Some computers (called Domain
Name Servers) even translate domain names into IP addresses for
fast access on the Internet.

• The Internet continued to support a few hundred government scientists for

over a decade until, in 1986, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)
initiated the development of the NSFnet, which even now provides a major
backbone communication service for the Internet. Today, the NSFnet
backbone carries over billions of packets of information per month.

Backbone: A backbone is nothing more than a major cable that

carries network traffic. Although thousands of regional private and
public networks exist, most Internet traffic spends most of its trip on
one of the major backbones.

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 CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

• In 1990, Tim Berbers-Lee, a researcher at CERN in Geneva, implemented a

version of hypertext that worked over the Internet. The goal of this project
was to allow easier access to research papers.
• Although the entrance of NSF onto the scene was a major factor in the
development of the Internet, possibly the biggest turning point came in
1991, when NSF dropped its funding of the Internet and lifted the ban on
commercial traffic on its backbone. Up until 1991, all NSF traffic came from
government and educational institutions.
• After 1991, however, the Internet was never quite the same. Commercial
enterprises could respond more quickly to the market and to demand for
information. New commercial backbones sprang up almost overnight. With
them came the marketing and popularization of the Internet. The Net
started to move away from UNIX and other science application languages
to Windows-based interfaces that were easy for the public to use.
• In 1992, CERN renamed Berners-Lee’s creation the World Wide Web and
released it to the world.
• In the next year, Marc Andreessen and the NCSA released the first graphical
browser, Mosaic. This browser is the grandparent of all modern browsers.
• By 1994, commercial sites began appearing on the Web.
• By 1995, there were over six million Internet hosts, offering a vast array of
services.
• Soon after that came America Online, CompuServe, and other Internet
Service Providers. As the Internet became more accessible, companies
began to see the enormous potential for business on the Internet. In
addition, users also began to see some of the incredible applications for
which they could use the Internet.
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What Is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web (web) is a network of information resources. The web relies on
three mechanisms to make these resources readily available to the widest possible
audience:

1. A uniform naming scheme for locating resources on the web (e.g., URLs).

2. Protocols, for access to named resources over the web (e.g., HTTP).

3. Hypertext, for easy navigation among resources (e.g., HTML).

Brief History of the World Wide Web

Where It Was Invented, How It's Used, and Where It's Headed

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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

March 1989

The World Wide Web has its historical roots in things such as the creation of the
telegraph, the launching of the Sputnik and more, but it really all started in March
1989, when Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist at CERN (The European
Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland wrote a paper called
Information Management: A Proposal. In this document, he wrote "just another
program" (BBC, 12/31/03) that happened to revolutionize the world as we know it.

The proposal suggested a way of managing information that uses a "hypertext"

process to link related documents together over a network. As you can see from the
proposal, the requirements are very similar to the Web as we know it today:

❖ Remote access across networks

❖ Cross-system compatibility (called "Heterogeneity" in the proposal)
❖ No centralization - allowing nodes to be created where they were needed
❖ Access to existing data
❖ Bookmarks (called "Private Links")
❖ And more...

October 1990

❖ Berners-Lee is joined by Robert Cailliau and together they create a working

prototype of what he dubbed the "WorldWideWeb" (ultimately the name was
changed to add spaces).
❖ This system was viewed and pages edited with the WorldWideWeb
browser/editor (later renamed Nexus).
❖ The Web at that time was only text, as the browser didn't have the ability to
display inline images.

February 1993

❖ The Web remained in text-only form until 1992 or 1993 (sources differ) when
the NCSA Mosaic browser came online supporting graphics.
❖ In February 1993, NCSA released the first alpha version of Marc Andreesen's
Mosaic browser for X-Windows.

Late 1993 and Early 1994

❖ NETCOM releases NetCruiser to set up customers with a graphical access to

the Internet, it includes a graphical Web browser similar to Mosaic.

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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

❖ O'Reilly and Spry announce that they are going to offer a consumer product
called "Internet in a box" to allow consumers to surf the Web easily from their
homes.
❖ Then in March of 1994, Marc Andreesen and some colleagues leave NCSA
(National Center for Supercomputing Applications) to form "Mosaic
Communications Corp." (later renamed Netscape Communications).
❖ And later in July 1994, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and CERN
announce that they are forming the W3 Organization to regulate the Web.

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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

December 2003

❖ On December 31st, 2003, England announced that Tim Berners-Lee would be

awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his
pioneering work creating the World Wide Web.
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Tim Berners-Lee
(Father of World Wide Web)

❖ He came up with system over 10 years ago to organize, link and browse NET
pages.
❖ Born in London in 1955.
❖ Studied at Wandsworth’s Emanuel School
❖ Read Physics at Queen’s College, Oxford
❖ Banned from using the University’s computer when he and a friend were
caught hacking
❖ Built own computer with old TV, a Motorola microprocessor and a soldering
iron
❖ Created Web in Late 1980’s and early 1990’s at CERN
❖ Offered Web free on the Net
❖ In 1994, he founded W3 Consortium (W3C) at MIT
❖ In 1994, he became first holder of the 3 COM FOUNDERS CHAIR
❖ Time Magazine named him ONE OF THE TOP 20 THINKERS OF THE 20 th
CENTURY
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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

Internet vs. Web

Internet:
• Internet is a more general term
• Includes physical aspect of underlying networks and mechanisms such as
email, FTP, HTTP…
• The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks
Web:
• Associated with information stored on the Internet
• Refers to a broader class of networks, i.e. Web of English Literature
• Web is one of the services that run on the Internet. It is a collection of
interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and
URLs.
• In short, the Web is an application running on the Internet.

Both Internet and web are networks

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Webpage vs. Website

Webpage:
❖ A web page is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with
formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML).
❖ A webpage is an independent page of a Website. For example a webpage would
be testimonials. This testimonials page can be optimized for whatever keyword
phrase you would like it to.
Website:
❖ A website, also written Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of
related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets.
❖ A website is a collection of WebPages that are under one (1) domain. For
example if there is a company that owns abccompany.com then this website
will have several WebPages like Home, About Us, Contact Us, Testimonials,
Products, Services, FAQ’s, and others. All of these pages together make up a
Website.
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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

Web Search Engine vs. Web Browser

Web Search Engine:

❖ Search engine usually refers to a Web search engine such as Google, Yahoo!
Search, MSN Search, and Ask.com, which searches for information on the
public Web.
❖ Search Engine is a web service like Google, Yahoo, Infoseek, etc... where you
can search for info on the web.
❖ A search engine is a program designed to help find information stored on a
computer system such as the World Wide Web, inside a corporate network or
a personal computer.
❖ The search engine allows one to ask for content meeting specific criteria
(typically those containing a given word or phrase) and retrieves a list of
references that match those criteria.
Web Browser:
❖ A web browser is a piece of software that is used to view websites.
❖ A web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple
Safari, Netscape, and Opera is a software application that enables a user to
display and interact with text, images, and other information typically located
on a web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network.
❖ Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily access information provided
on web pages at websites by traversing these links.
❖ Web browsers are used to view web pages.
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What makes the web unique?

• It is the largest collection of interconnected documents and other resources,

linked by hyperlinks and URLs.
• It's interactive, meaning that unlike TV, the broadcast is two-way.
• Anyone can 'publish' on the Internet.
• For the first time, the vast majority of the world's knowledge is accessible to
anyone.
• Millions of people can share and take part in online communities.
• It's a simple invention which allows people to instantly message, unlike letters,
allow people to communicate visually, and through phone like programs.
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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

Find Anything on the Internet

• The Internet isn’t called the Information Superhighway for nothing. The
Internet is information. Fortunately, some powerful search tools can help you
find just about anything you want.

Search Engine: A search engine does exactly what its name says. It is
really a computer program that indexes a database and then enables
users to search it for relevant information.

• The World Wide Web is just a part of the Internet, much like e-mail and
newsgroups. The World Wide Web is an ever-changing, rich collection of
hundreds of millions of documents, all of which reside some place on the
Internet and are written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
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Reasons why people use the Internet

• To find general information about a subject

The Web is like a huge encyclopedia of information - in some ways it's even
better. The volume of information you'll find on the Web is amazing. For
every topic that you've ever wondered about, there's bound to be someone
who's written a Web page about it. The Web offers many different
perspectives on a single topic. For example, here is a selection of pages about
Genetic Engineering:
• In fact you can even find online encyclopedias. Many of these are now
offering a subscription service which lets you search through the complete
text of the encyclopedia. There are also many free ecyclopedias that may give
you a cut-down version of what you would find in a complete encyclopedia.
• To access information not easily available elsewhere
One of the great things about the Web is that it puts information into your
hands that you might otherwise have to pay for or find out by less convenient
means.
• To correspond with faraway friends
Email offers a cheap and easy alternative to traditional methods of
correspondence. It's faster and easier than writing snail mail and cheaper than
using the telephone. Of course, there are disadvantages too. It's not as
personal as a handwritten letter - and not as reliable either. If you spell the
name of the street wrong in a conventional address, it's not too difficult for
the post office to work out what you mean. However if you spell anything
wrong in an email address, your mail won't be delivered (you might get it
sent back to you or you might never realise).

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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

• To meet people
The Web is generally a very friendly place. People love getting email from
strangers, and friendships are quick to form from casual correspondence. The
"impersonal" aspect of email tends to encourage people to reveal surprisingly
personal things about themselves. When you know you will never have to
meet someone face-to-face, you may find it easier to tell them your darkest
secrets. Cyber-friendships have often developed into real life ones too. Many
people have even found love on the Net, and have gone on to marry their
cyber-partner.
• To discuss their interests with like-minded people
Did you think you were alone in your obsession with a singer, TV program,
author, hobby? Chances are there's and Internet group for people like you,
discussing every little detail of your obsession right now.
• To have fun
There's no doubt that the Internet is a fun place to be. There's plenty to keep
you occupied on a rainy day.
• To learn
Online distance education courses can give you an opportunity to gain a
qualification over the Internet.
• To read the news
• To find software
The Internet contains a wealth of useful downloadable shareware. Some
pieces of shareware are limited versions of the full piece of software, other are
time limited trials (you should pay once the time limit is up). Other shareware
is free for educational institutes, or for non-commercial purposes.
• To buy things
The security of on-line shopping is still questionable, but as long as you are
dealing with a reputable company or Web Site the risks are minimal.

Why do people put things on the Web?

• To advertise a product
Most company Web sites start up as a big advertisement for their products
and services. It may be hard to see why anyone would willingly visit a 10
page ad - but these advertisements are very useful to anyone genuinely
interested in finding out about their products. Companies may also give away
some information for free as an incentive for people to visit their pages.
• To sell a product
Internet shopping (e-commerce) is still in its infancy - it takes a very good
marketing strategy to actually make money out of selling items over the Web,
but that doesn't stop lots of people from trying.
• To make money
A popular way to make money out of the Web is from advertising revenue.

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CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Manila North Road, Centro-2, Sanchez Mira, Cagayan

Popular sites have banners at the top of the page enticing people to click them
and be taken to the advertiser's Web site. These banners are generally
animated and very appealing, with mysterious messages to make users
wonder where they will be taken. For each person that clicks the ad, the host
site gets commission. Making money this way is only successful if the site gets
lots of visitors (thousands a day); so the sites must be very useful and offer
something of real value to their visitors.
• To share their knowledge with the world
Many individuals write Web pages to share information about their interests
or hobbies. They don't expect to make any money out of it - they just feel that
the Web has given them so much information that the least they can do is put
something into it that may be useful for others. Other rewards come from the
prestige of having their site recognised as something good and the contact
inspired by their pages with others sharing the same interest.

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