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We could thank nuclear arms for the Internet. I am wondering how much of the current state of Internet holds to the initial promise.
by eveningcoffee 11y ago
We could thank nuclear arms for the Internet. I am wondering how much of the current state of Internet holds to the initial promise.
- SixSigma 11y agoWhile the Internet as we know it was derived by Darpa, I'm not convinced we wouldn't have one without it. Large scale networks already existed. INTERconnected NETworks don't forget. I had access to Janet, FidoNet & Compuserve prior to the current network.
- kragen 11y agoARPANet funding started in 1967 or 1968 and brought up the first links in 1969, CompuServe in 1969, FidoNet started in 1982, JANET in 1983, so I don't think you had access to Janet, FidoNet, and CompuServe prior to the ARPANet, or even prior to TCP/IP in 1978 or so. Some kind of network was going to happen — but remember that Telenet, Tymnet, and PC-Pursuit (aside from CompuServe, The Source, Minitel, and of course the PSTN itself) were already generally available in the 1980s. The issue is that the existing networks were either too tightly controlled and inflexible (Minitel, CompuServe, the PSTN) or too slow (FidoNet) to support a lot of the applications to which we put the internet today.
- SixSigma 11y agoI'm from the UK. I had access to Janet in 1989 at Uni, and then Compuserve and then FidoNet. Internet access here was about 1994. I personally had it when Windows 95 arrived and I bought the Plus Pack which included Internet Explorer and dial-up software. Though I must admit, I had an Internet email address I collected via FidoNet using Bluewave.