The Whole Story at a Glance
Four computers in 1969. Billions of devices today. Here is the whole journey in one place — press play, sit back, and watch fifty years of networking happen on the globe.
Press Play to watch it like a film — it pauses on each milestone. Or drag the slider yourself.
Places are shown where they really are. The lines are simplified: they show which places were connected, not the real cable routes.
1The milestones
Four university computers in the USA are connected — UCLA, SRI, UCSB and the University of Utah.
ARPANET has grown to 15 sites, and Ray Tomlinson sends the first email between computers on it — using the @ sign.
ARPANET reaches beyond the USA for the first time: Norway and London join, over a satellite link.
ARPANET switches to TCP/IP, the set of rules for sending data that the Internet still uses today.
The National Science Foundation links six supercomputer centres with a faster network, open to every university.
Its backbone is upgraded to 1.5 Mbps, and regional networks of colleges across the USA join it.
Its job has passed to NSFNET, and the original network is shut down.
Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web, built at CERN in Geneva, goes public — web pages you open with a browser.
NSFNET is retired and companies take over running the Internet. On 15 August 1995, VSNL opens public internet access in India.
Millions of networks in every country, joined into one — used by more than five billion people.
2The three stages the syllabus names
| ARPANET | NSFNET | INTERNET | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Started | 1969 | 1986 | 1990s |
| Full form / meaning | Advanced Research Projects Agency Network | National Science Foundation Network | Interconnected networks — a network of networks |
| Built by | US Department of Defense (ARPA) | US National Science Foundation | No single owner |
| Who used it | Defence-funded research sites | All universities and researchers | Everyone |
| Size | 4 sites, then a few dozen | Hundreds of college networks | Millions of networks, billions of devices |
3Writing it in an exam
A short-answer question such as “Write a short note on the evolution of networking” wants the three names, their years and one line on each. For example:
4Check yourself
Arrange in order of when they began: Internet, ARPANET, NSFNET
Which network was built by the National Science Foundation?
Why could networks from different countries join the Internet and still understand each other?
The first message on ARPANET was “LO”. Why only two letters?