1. An Internet Overview Cyberspace Explorations Class BOLLI - Fall 2005

2. A Little “Pre-History” Before the advent of the modern Internet, a communications revolution dramatically changed how countries, companies, and people interacted. It has come to be called the “Victorian Internet”. What was it?

3. “Victorian Internet”? The Telegraph – Invented in the 1840’s Heretofore, information could move only as fast as a horse could run Now, messages could be sent instantaneously by wires established over vast distances Used extensively by the U.S. Government during the American Civil War

4. Origins of the Modern Internet Arpanet/Darpanet (~ 1969) – US Government Sponsored Project. Developed to permit sending one-to-one electronic messages (Email) between researchers at physically separated laboratories. Also, developed to electronically transfer files from one researcher to another.

5. Principal Design Goal: establish “fail-safe” communications by creating alternate routes between computers. Old Way New Way Origins of the Internet (cont’d)

6. A special “protocol” (i.e., language) was developed known as TCP/IP to facilitate communications from “sender” to “receiver” Each message is broken into small “packets” each sent individually, then reassembled into original message by the recipient. Origins of the Internet (cont’d)

7. 1980  1990 – Email services are gradually extended to businesses and homes. World Wide Web (WWW) introduced in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee (recently knighted by the Queen of England and now associated with MIT). knighted Berners-Lee’s work (at CERN research center in Geneva, Switzerland) developed software to allow electronic documents (i.e., Web pages) to link to one another.

8. Origins of the Internet (cont’d) 1993 – World Wide Web commercialized by release of first Netscape Web browser. Today – Dozens of browser programs exist, the most popular being: Microsoft Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox Netscape Navigator Opera Browser AOL Browser

9. The Internet E-Mail World Wide Web Instant Messaging (I/M) What is the Internet? VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)

10. How Does the Internet Work? – Yesterday

11. How Does the Internet Work? –Tomorrow MY TELEPHONE

12. Evolution of the Modern PC 1975 – Bill Gates develops BASIC for first Altair Computer 1977 – First consumer computers released: Apple I/II, Commodore PET, Radio Shack TRS80 1981 – First IBM PC sold for $3,500 1983 – First successful “portable” PC from Compaq 1984/5 – Apple introduced “graphical user interface” (GUI) with Lisa and then Macintosh 1986 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 introduced. 1991 – First “usable” release of Microsoft Windows (version 3.0) 1993  2003 – Seven subsequent versions of Windows released: 3.1, 95, 98 98SE, ME, 2000, XP

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