A Short History of the Internet

The Internet

• A global computer network
• Network of networks
• The mother of all networks
• A flexible international communications medium
• An access point to a wide range of information resources and services
• Is not owned by any government, corporation or university
• Has the potential to revolutionise the way people work
• What is the Internet
• The Internet and WWW links

Brief History of the Internet

• Set up as an experimental network with primary aim being defence
• Funded by the U S government
• Research led to the development of the network protocol Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and packet switching.
• 1991 National Research and Education Network in United States abolishes anticommercial user policies
• 1991 Commercial Internet Exchange - establishes path for business to use the Internet
• 1990 establishment of AARNET - the Australian Academic Research Network
• AARNET becomes part of the Internet via a link from Melbourne to California
• 1994 AVCC adopted open access policy for AARNET
• Emergence of commercial networks
• Hobbes' Internet Timeline

Governance of the Internet

• The Internet Community - bottom up grass roots society
• CIX - trying to shape the commercial part of the Internet
• Several groups provide an organised means for deriving rules and protocols
• Internet Facts