An Internet OverviewAn Internet Overview

Cyberspace Explorations ClassCyberspace Explorations ClassBOLLI - Spring 2005BOLLI - Spring 2005

Origins of the InternetOrigins of the Internet

• Arpanet/Darpanet (~ 1969) – US Government Sponsored Project.

• Developed to provide one-to-one electronic messages to be sent between researchers at physically separated laboratories.

• Developed for transfer of electronic files from one computer to another.

• Developed to provide “fail-safe” communications by establishing alternate routes between computers.

• Internet-connected computers use a “protocol” known as TCP/IP.

• Individual messages “deconstructed” into small “packets”, sent individually, then reassembled into full message by the recipient.

Old Way New Way

Origins of the Internet Origins of the Internet (cont’d)(cont’d)

Origins of the Internet Origins of the Internet (cont’d)(cont’d)

• 19801990 – Email services gradually extended to businesses and homes.

• World Wide Web (WWW) introduced in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee (recently knighted by the Queen of England and now associated with MIT).

• Berners-Lee’s work (at CERN research center in Geneva, Switzerland) develops software to allow electronic documents (i.e., Web pages) to link to one another.

Origins of the Internet Origins of the Internet (cont’d)(cont’d)• HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol developed

to facilitate transferring pages of mixed graphical and text data from one computer to another.

• HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language developed to efficiently create pages of mixed graphical and text data for display on a wide variety of different computers.

• 1993 – World Wide Web commercialized by release of first Netscape Web browser.

The

Intern

etE-Mail

WorldWideWeb

Instant Messaging

(I/M)

What is the Internet?What is the Internet?

VOIP (Voice OverInternet Protocol)

THE INTERNET

WEBSERVER

WEBSERVER

WEBSERVER

MY COMPUTER

ISP

How Does the Internet Work? How Does the Internet Work? – Yesterday– Yesterday

THE INTERNET

WEBSERVER

WEBSERVER

WEBSERVER

MY COMPUTER

ISP

How Does the Internet Work? How Does the Internet Work? –Tomorrow–Tomorrow

MY TELEPHONE

Evolution of the Modern PCEvolution of the Modern PC• 1975 – Bill Gates develops BASIC for first Altair

Computer• 1977 – First consumer computers released: Apple I/II,

Commodore PET, Radio Shack TRS80• 1981 – First IBM PC sold for $3,500• 1983 – First successful “portable” PC from Compaq• 1984/5 – Apple introduced “graphical user interface”

(GUI) with Lisa and then Macintosh• 1986 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 introduced.• 1991 – First “usable” release of Microsoft Windows

(version 3.0)• 19932003 – Seven subsequent versions of Windows

released: 3.1, 95, 98 98SE, ME, 2000, XP

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