All Hail The Mother of the Internet!
x Bookmark When I am not studying to get better at my job or to pass a certification test (or being a husband and dad), I enjoy reading. A lot, actually. A majority of the books I end up reading are related to history; not just American History either. I love to read about inventors [...]
IP Multicast for the Intimidated, Part 2: IGMP
x Bookmark In my last post, the first in a series about IP multicast, I tried to make the subject as painless as possible. You see, it’s been my experience that a great many network engineers get very nervous when faced with the prospect of having to work on IP multicast. Why? My guess is [...]
IP Multicast for the Intimidated: A Primer
x Bookmark Let me ask you this: What is it about IP multicast that gives most people panic attacks? For me, IP Multicast was scary and different than what I was used to; it is a little counterintuitive when you are used to dealing with standard IP unicast and broadcast concepts. Plus, there are a [...]
Networking Careers and Investing in Yourself
x Bookmark In my long and storied IT career (haha!), I have seen many rounds of Reductions in Force (RIFs) and layoffs. When a company sells a division, spins off a business, or shows less-than-positive revenue, we invariably see some people, deserving or not, get their walking papers. I have to be completely candid and [...]
Network Troubleshooting: Structured is Best
x Bookmark Troubleshooting is not really something that many of us can easily learn from books, classes, or simulations. We usually learn to troubleshoot on the job, under pressure, and with very little room for error. How did you learn to troubleshoot network problems? In my case, I was lucky to have had several veteran [...]
Happy Birthday, Internet.
September 2, 2010 by Jake Gillen · Leave a Comment
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Birth of the Internet is today! It turns 41
September 2, 2010 marks the 41st birthday of the network that would become the Internet. I know you are a big fan of the Internet and networks, just like I am, so it is fortuitous that the 41st anniversary of the first packetized data to cross the first router (Interface Message Processors, or IMPs) is in just a couple of days.
I know what you’re thinking: Is the first message on the first router really something that should be commemorated? I mean, we don’t celebrate the invention of, say, concrete (although there are a lot of sites on the Internet dedicated to the history of cement and concrete!).
The first communication between the IMP, and a computer (in this case called an SDS Sigma-7), happened in the Network Measurement Center at UCLA. The IMP was build by a company that still kind of exists called Bolt, Berenak and Newman (although, now it’s called BBN Technologies). BBN has long been involved in defense contracting work in the US, and was founded by a couple of MIT professors and a former student.
The first communication to take place between two IMPs with attached computers, happened on October 29, 1969, between UCLA and Stanford University.
The first birthday message?
‘Lo’.
‘Lo’, the first message sent between the IMPs at UCLA and Stanford, was the result of a system crash. According to sources, it was supposed to be the word ‘Login’, but the system crashed and it took an hour to bring the system back up.
It’s not really like the first message sent, ‘Lo’ is really on par with,’Mr.Watson—come here—I want to see you.’ Is it?
I personally think it’s a close second.
The telephone revolutionized communication in the 19th century. Before the telephone, you had to send letters or possibly a telegraph. Both had and still have disadvantages.
Letters took a long time to across the country or across oceans. A long, long time. Telegraphs required an expert at each end that could receive and transpose the message from code to words. Telegraphs tended to be expensive. Telegraphs, and Morse code, were technological game-changers in their own right, since communication could be almost instant. But it’s not the same a hearing a voice over a machine and network spanning miles and miles.
The telephone, as early as the 1890s, made it possible to speak to other people over long distances. Witchcraft!
Back to the Birth of the Internet:
In the ensuing 41 years, this nascent ARPANET, which had four ‘nodes’ by the end of 1969, has changed everything.
At roughly the same time, throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, computers themselves went from being monolithic entities at research institutions for crunching numbers to being a hobby, a vocation and even a profession for so many people. PCs and Macs made computers accessible to anyone with a little money and some time to learn. People, even at the start of the home computing era, realized that being connected to others over a network is way more fun than being on your computer all by yourself.
Even before graphics and free dirty pictures.
People wanted, and still want, to be able to communicate and share information in real time.
Myth-busting Time!
One thing that I have heard countless times is that the Internet was started to address a certain defense-related problem: In case of a missile strike on the US, there needed to be a decentralized network so that we could, essentially, fire back. A centralized control facility would be the enemy’s main target. We needed to be able to strike back even if one facility was destroyed.
Guess what?
Not so.
The book I am reading on this at the moment, ‘On the Way to the Web’, says this was not really the case at all. People ended up confusing the ARPANET with a project being worked on by the Rand Corporation at the time. The Rand Corporation project was a voice network project, wherein the network could survive and function if some of the links were taken out. It did involve packetizing messages, so maybe it was an early form of Voice-over-X technology (since IP was not yet completed). I started thinking about this more, and it makes sense: at that time, missile sites were manned by men, not machines, so a resilient voice connection was more important than a primitive form of Email. The men in the silos would want to speak to one another. (See ‘Wargames’ if you have not already).
The lesson learned from this little tidbit? Not everything the ARPA (now DARPA) did was related to making war.
But this ode to the Birth of the Internet is not just about appreciating the Internet. The Internet made all the protocols we use on a daily basis necessary, which in turn gave many of us opportunities.
Remember that from its humble beginnings, the Internet has remained a place for learning and information sharing.
So, today on the birth of the internet, when you click over to this post, or to any other of nearly countless web pages, remember to marvel at the Internet and what it has done for so many of us.