Who invented the internet?

Question

Not marketed or changed it... Just simply what company or indidvidual had the idea and implemented it first...

Also, what was it's original purpose?

Now, whtknt, I hope you're not insulting my intelligence w/o knowing in what faith I asked this question... I could be someone who just wants to know, I could be someone checking facts at different sources, or I could be someone who asked just to find out who knows and who doesn't as a little experiment (or waiting to see who'd get cocky and who'd just answer- which on a neutral question such as this would prove ego issues...). Anyway, something to think about for you...

Answer 1

Al Gore.

Okay, seriously.

The Internet began its life as a simple communications network between a handful of universities and government agencies. In 1960, a man named J.C.R. Licklider first put to paper the idea of a central computer network, connected by wide-band communication lines, but it wasn't until 1964 that Robert W. Taylor, as associate of Licklider, first took the steps towards the creation of what would eventualy become the Internet.

Taylor developed a system of interconnected networks that he called the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) and he utilized a new technology developed by Donald Davies, Paul Baran, and Leonard Kleinrock called packet switching.

Packet switching, now the dominant basis for both data and voice communication worldwide, was a new and important concept in data communications. Previously, data communications was based on the idea of circuit switching, as in the old typical telephone circuit, where a dedicated circuit is tied up for the duration of the call and communication is only possible with the single party on the other end of the circuit.

With packet switching, a system could use one communication link to communicate with more than one machine by assembling data into packets. Not only could the link be shared (much as a single mail person can be used to post letters to different destinations), but each packet could be routed independently of other packets. This was a major advance.

The ARPANet started in 1972, and took off rapidly. By 1981, the number of hosts had grown to 213, with a new host being added approximately every twenty days. As the primary function of the Internet today is the exchange of information, so it was with ARPANET. With the success of ARPANET and the creation of multiple networks of the same nature, it soon became apparent that these networks would need to be combined somehow.

As ARPANET was growing and new networks were being deveoped, Robert E. Kahn and Vint Cerf began visualizing a way to bring the various networks together. By 1973, they had soon worked out a fundamental reformulation, where the differences between network protocols were hidden by using a common internetwork protocol, and instead of the network being responsible for reliability, as in the ARPANET, the hosts became responsible. Cerf credits Hubert Zimmerman and Louis Pouzin (designer of the CYCLADES network) with important work on this design.

With the role of the network reduced to the bare minimum, it became possible to join almost any networks together, no matter what their characteristics were, thereby solving Kahn's initial problem. DARPA agreed to fund development of prototype software, and after several years of work, the first somewhat crude demonstration of what had by then become TCP/IP occurred in July 1977. This new method quickly spread across the networks, and on January 1, 1983, TCP/IP protocols became the only approved protocol on the ARPANET, replacing the earlier NCP protocol.

After the ARPANET had been up and running for several years, ARPA began shopping around for another agency to hand it off to. Their primary business, after all, was R&D, not running a communications utility. The Department of Defense, impressed by the capabilities of ARPANET, took up the responsibility for the network. In 1983, the U.S. military portion of ARPANET had broken off and been renamed MILNET.

Under the watchful eye of the military, the networks based around the ARPANET were government funded and therefore restricted to noncommercial uses such as research; unrelated commercial use was strictly forbidden. This initially restricted connections to military sites and universities. During the 1980s, the connections expanded to more educational institutions, and even to a growing number of companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation and Hewlett-Packard, which were participating in research projects or providing services to those who were.

Another branch of the U.S. government, the National Science Foundation (NSF), became heavily involved in internet research and started development of a successor to ARPANET. In 1984 this resulted in the first Wide Area Network designed specifically to use TCP/IP. This grew into the NSFNet backbone, established in 1986, and intended to connect and provide access to a number of supercomputing centers established by the NSF.

As interest in wide spread networking grew and new applications for it arrived, the Internet's technologies spread throughout the rest of the world. TCP/IP's network-agnostic approach meant that it was easy to use any existing network infrastructure, such as the IPSS X.25 network, to carry Internet traffic. In 1984, University College London replaced its transatlantic satellite links with TCP/IP over IPSS.

Many sites unable to link directly to the Internet started to create simple gateways to allow transfer of e-mail, at that time the most important application. Sites which only had intermittent connections used UUCP or FidoNet and relied on the gateways between these networks and the Internet. Some gateway services went beyond simple e-mail peering, such as allowing access to FTP sites via UUCP or e-mail.

It wasn't long after that when people began to realize the applications that a globally-connected network could permit. What began as a network of computers across the U.S. quickly gained ground and moved into Europe, Australia, and Japan. Singapore and Thailand were the next to join. China connected in 1994, and many African countries came onboard in the late 90s.

As the world raced towards the 21st century, the era of global communication had been realized.

Man, if everybody just learned to use Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers would be a lot less crowded.

EDIT: Response to Questioner:

No insult intended. It was a general statement regarding the fact that many people are simply too lazy to do a little research for themselves. Wikipedia certainly isn't the only resource available, nor is it the best. But I've noticed on Yahoo Answers (and similar sites) that people ask things that simply Googling would turn up reams of information on.

Even more alarming are the question that a little common sense would provide an answer to. I saw one the other day (on this or another Q&A site) that asked: "I'm bleeding from the anus. Should I go see a doctor?"

If you have to ask...

Answer 2

Um, Congress? Actually, the Internet was developed by a scientific community for sharing documentation. That was back in the days, where everything was on a gray background with only type. Most of the FTP programs out there will let you search the archives to see the information available from the old schoold days.

Answer 3

Al Gore!

Just joking. Actually, DARPA was the original agency that invented Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet, in 1969. The Internet can therefore be considered 37 years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet#Creation_of_the_Internet

Answer 4

A technology research organization.. the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C.

for more info: http://www.w3.org

Answer 5

www was made at cern, and the Internet was made after a research made by the DOD ( department of defense) in collaboration with some universities.

Answer 6

We created it as a giant psychology experiment to test human intelligence. So far, you're failing.

Yours truly,
The Space Aliens

Answer 7

Arpa, which was later changed to Darpa.

Answer 8

Al Gore?

Answer 9

the defense department for the misiles

Answer 10

It was developed by US Army.