History of the Internet

How did the internet originate?

Although the internet originally began in the 19^th century with the invention of the telegraph system it was really recognised and in modern history is known has being developed in the 1950s and 1960s when with the development of computers. The Internet that exists today began as a military network that was used to transmit data over long distances. That developed into a text exchange between educational institutions.

Who were the people most responsible for creating it?

J.C.R Licklider of MIT first proposed a global network of computers in 1962 and moved over to the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in late 1962 to head the work to develop it. Leonard Kleinrock of MIT and later UCLA developed the theory of packet switching, which was to form the basis of Internet Connections. Lawrence Roberts of MIT was also involved in this; she connected a Massachusetts computer with a California computer in 1965 over dial-up telephone lines. Al Gore has done more than any other elected official to support the growth and development of the Internet from the 1970’s to present. 

What system immediately preceded the internet? What was its purpose?

ARPANET was one of the systems that immediately preceded the internet. It was a lead to development of protocols for internetworking, where multiple separate networks could be joined together into a network of networks.

What is an IP packet? What is it comprised of?

IP shortened for Internet Protocol is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP.

IP packets are an extremely efficient way of sending information over the internet, it only a matter of a few milliseconds – when all this is received on another device. IP packets are a basic chunk of data that can be sent over the Internet. All the data is broken into “small parts” into IP packets on the sending computer and reassembled on the computer that is receiving the information.

What does TCP stand for? How does TCP deal with lost IP packets?

TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol. TCP adds support to detect errors or lost data and to trigger retransmission until the data is correctly and completely received.

Why do computer people like everything in letters?

They like everything in letters because words are easier to remember whereas numbers are sometimes a bit hard.