The name internet came from a protocol allowing LANs to cross communicate. At the time were multiple proprietary local area networks (LANs). Xerox had Ethernet

The name internet came from a protocol allowing LANs to cross communicate. At the time were multiple proprietary local area networks (LANs). Xerox had Ethernet which is why they were one of the earliest contributor to the Internet. The funny thing is if you look at a map of early Arpanet, there were a bunch of military installations, universities, and Xerox. http://mercury.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/arpageo.html http://mercury.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/arpageo.html. Xerox was on the arpanet in 1974 but didn't release ethernet until 1980. Xerox took a long time to productize their technology back in the day. The internet spun out from arpanet in the early 1980s because the military was worried about college students without security clearance being on their network. I joined Xerox 2 years after it spun out and it was called internet back then.