Lesson 1: The Big Picture or Why the World    Wide Web Waited until the 1990s

---

Steps one, two, and three are a natural progression from big computer to little computer to graphical computer. Step four, the Internet, is a step parallel to the rise of the PC, developing straight from the invention of the electronic computer. In the 1960s the U.S. military envisioned a computer network that would facilitate strategic communication, that is, to withstand nuclear attack. ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Administration Network) was designed to be highly decentralized with no central authority. To accomplish this, the Defense Department had to develop a network that would be usable by computers with different hardware configurations.

The early Internet was designed to divide information into data packets, then route the packets to their destination by the most efficient path, reassembling the information at the other end. Parts of the network that were not working could be avoided. This method or protocol of transferring data packets is called TCP/IP. ARPANET proved too valuable to be in the hands of only military users. Universities, who helped to develop the technology, were soon on board. ARPANET became the Internet and by 1980 thousands of college faculty, military personnel, and scientists availed the Internet, mostly sending and receiving electronic messages.

The native language of the Internet is UNIX and most of the early Internet traffic was handled by UNIX servers. By the late 1980s, the Internet was overwhelmed with traffic. Larger, faster, less-expensive computers and faster transmission lines made Internet access easier and cleared the logjam.

What is the Internet then? It is a collection of computer networks linked together, using a common protocol, allowing users to share a vast amount of data resources. We will provide more detail of the Internet in following lessons.

Back to STEP THREE ................................................. Forward to STEP FIVE