Class Number 1: 9/8/97

 

  1. Internet Overview & History
    1. What is the Internet?
      1. The Real World vs. the Internet
        1. Lots of buzzwords, recently part of the social scene
        2. Lots of mass media attention, not all good
        3. Massive public awareness, very little public understanding
        4. Is the Internet a place?
          1. Yes, and No
          2. Internet is nothing but a worldwide network of computer networks
          3. However, has become so large and robust has the feel of a place
        5. Some services for the Internet user?
          1. Electronic mail
          2. Network news
          3. File transfer
          4. Information browsing and searching
          5. Interactive communications
          6. ...
      2. The Internet has arrived
        1. Grown large enough where its a part of modern society
        2. User community is mostly "non-techy" users for the first time
        3. Explosive growth of users, as well as applications and information accessible
        4. Easier to use than ever
    2. History of the Internet
      1. Early Years
        1. Arrival of local computer networks in 1970s
          1. Lots of "closed" standards
          2. Proliferation of non-compatible networks
          3. A few (mostly closed) wide area connections in the biggest companies
        2. Dept of Defense networking needs
          1. Advanced Research Projects Agency tasked with developing plan for connecting all Dept of Defense computing networks -- Late 1960's
          2. ARPA developed basic plans and concepts, and awarded grants to industy and academia
          3. Regular meetings and development throughout the 1970's
          4. By late 1970's, ARPANET was in place, connecting 1 computer at each ARPA research site (dozens of total machines)
          5. ARPANET consisted of 2 parallel networks, one a production network used to communicate between ARPA funded researchers, and a 2nd experimental network used for testing and development purposes
          6. ARPA coined the phrase Internet, as a shorter name for internetwork.
            1. Naming convention: internet == generic internetwork. Internet == their specific prototype network
            2. Naming convention of Internet vs. internet remains today
          7. DOD adopts TCP/IP as standard for all computing networks -- January 1, 1983
        3. Important achievements
          1. ARPA network design based on a technology called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). TCP/IP remains today as the basis of the Internet, but has undergone many major revisions and updates!
          2. TCP/IP is an "open" standard. Anyone can get all of the documentation and standards and use them for free!
      2. The Internet Emerges -- 1983 to 1993
        1. Grows from small, experimental network to global large scale publicly accessible network
        2. Doubles in size approximately every 10 months!
          1. 1983 -- 500 computers
          2. 1984 - 1000 computers
          3. 1985 - 2000 computers
          4. 1986 - 2300 computers
          5. 1987 - 5100 computers
          6. 1988 - 28K computers
          7. 1989 - 80K computers
          8. 1990 - 290K computers
          9. 1991 - 500K computers
          10. 1992 - 727K computers
        3. The UNIX operating system
          1. Developed by Bell Laboratories in early 1970s
          2. A version by grad students at Berkeley released. Includes TCP/IP networking
          3. Distributed free of charge to all universities -- rapid growth in number of TCP/IP based machines and networks
        4. Network doubles in size in 1983 and 1984!
          1. Drives lots of changes in network to accomodate increased size
          2. Emphasis on network management, and network addressing and indexing schemes
        5. ARPA creates the Internet Activities Board (IAB) to oversee growth of the network
          1. Leader of the group is the "Internet Architect"
          2. IAB creates task forces to work on specific issues and areas.
          3. Internet documentation emerges as 2 types:
            1. Request for Comment (RFC) -- preliminary document, issued for other researches to consider and provide comments
            2. Internet Engineering Notes (IEN) -- RFCs that have become more finalized and are officially blessed by IAB (these never caught on and the concept of IENs was scrapped a few years later)
          4. In 1989, the IAB accepted members from various commercial entities
          5. In 1992, the Internet Society was formed. IAB renamed Internet Architecture Board.
          6. Most significant task force of the IAB is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which is responsible for all technical issues. Most RFCs come from IETF working committees.
        6. National Science Foundation gets involved -- 1985
          1. Goal is to provide TCP/IP connectivity for non-defense purposes
          2. Original goal -- connect 100 universities
          3. Funded by US federal grants
          4. NFSNet goes online starting in late 1985 -- 56Kbps speed on major links
          5. NFSNet undergoes major upgrade in 1987
            1. Network outsourced to consortium of IBM, MCI, and MERIT
            2. Goes online with backbone with 13 major regional sites in 1988 -- 1.5Mbps speed on major links
        7. Formation of Advanced Networks & Services (ANS) and ANSNet - 1992
          1. Partnership of MCI, MERIT, and MCI
          2. Non-profit company
          3. Speed is 45Mbps per link
          4. Supports massive growth as network is opened up for more private and commercial use
      3. Parallel devlopments
        1. Lots of other computer networks evolved in parallel
          1. Bitnet -- IBM mainframes
          2. X.25 -- primarily Europe
          3. UUCP based networks -- Bell Labs Unix to Unix Copy
          4. ...
        2. Internet becomes the unifying network
          1. Most other networks begin to be absorbed by Internet in late 1980's and early 1990's
          2. Some portions of these other networks still exist! Interconnecting "gateways" allow some communications between Internet and these other networks
        3. Internet begins inroads into rest of world starting in 1991 -- European consortium starts EBONE network
        4. Now Internet reaches into almost every country on the planet!
      4. Recent developments:
        1. Continued growth
          1. 1993 - 1.2M computers
          2. 1994 - 2.2M computers
          3. 1995 - 4.8M computers
          4. 1996 - 9.4M computers
          5. 1997 - 16.1M computers
        2. Graphical Internet tools make the Internet accessible by the average person
        3. Internet is totally privatized -- NSFNet is taken over by industry based consortium -- May 1995
        4. Access to Internet via commercial access providers
          1. Major online services such as CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy, etc.
          2. Local Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
          3. National providers, such as MCI, etc...
          4. Public utilities: cable TV, phone, power, etc...
          5. Where next???
        5. Growth in bandwidth requirements due to increase in multimedia usage
    3. The Internet vs. Other Information Services
      1. Internet has no centralized management / no editorial functions
      2. Provides a general purpose communications media! Can host most any type of application
        1. Most applications used today didn't exist as recently as a few years ago
        2. Basic technology has survived massive growth and change quite well!
      3. Most commercial information services are more directly targeted at specific services and capabilities
        1. Editorial control of content
        2. Better indexed and easier to determine sources of information
        3. All of the major services have had to begin providing Internet access to remain competitive
      4. Commercial services & Internet growing closer together
        1. Commercial sites on the Internet
        2. Technologies to control content access on Internet
        3. Commercial services "look/feel" like Internet
        4. Can use your choice of applications / software with the services

 

Next Time:

  1. Getting Connected to the Internet
  2. Basics of Internet navigation