Explain Internet and History of Internet

INTERNET

Internet is the network of networks around the world. It is made up of thousands of smaller networks. It is a global communication system. We can send and receive information from a city or country to another through Internet.

Main components of Internet are computers, communication media and modem etc. Modem is used to send and receive information though telephone lines.
   

Internet provides following main facilities:

               ·    E- mail
               ·    Chat
               ·    Searching jobs
               ·    Advertising for business
               ·    E-commerce
               ·    Searching information

To use Internet we must have

 ·    suitable computer
 ·    telephone line
 ·    modem
 ·    web browser (for example, internet explorer)
 ·    Internet connection or scratch card of an ISP

HISTORY OF INTERNET

1) ARPANET  

The seeds of internet were planted in 1969 by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of US department of Defense. ARPA began to connect computers at different universities and defense contractors. This network was named ARPANET. The goal of ARPANET was to create a large network using telephone lines that could survive a nuclear attack or earthquake. Secondly, It also linked researchers at remote places to share the research work.
ARPANET continued to develop through the 70s. Before the 80s there were fewer than 100 sites on the e Internet.

2) NSFNET

In 80s US defense department stopped funding the ARPANET. In the mid-80s the National Science Foundation (NSF) joined the project. NSF developed the network to connect supercomputer centers in the US.
ARPANET was unable to handle rapidly increasing load of users. So NSF developed a new and higher capacity network called NSFNET.

3) INTERNET

At this point many colleges and universities were encouraged to connect to the network. The number of sites began to increase rapidly. There were more than 100,000 sites in 1989. Similar networks were established in other countries in the world. The ARPANET, NSFNET and other networks were interconnected. The process of connecting different networks together is called INTERNETWORKING. So this world wide network of networks was named as INTERNET.

4) Internet Backbones

NSFNET provided internet connections for academic research. But NSFNET did not permit users to do private business on internet. Therefore, many telecommunication companies created their own network backbones. Network back bones consist of high-speed data lines to carry huge volume of traffic. Local networks connect to these backbones.
In 1990 ARPANET was shut down. In 1995, government funding for NSFNET was discontinued. So commercial internet back bone services replaced them.

5) Business on Internet

In the early 90s businesses were allowed on the internet.

6) Internet Service providers

Since 1996, most of the internet traffic is carried by independent Internet Service Providers. Now at a very low cost, computers of offices, homes, institutes, hotels and net cafes etc can be connected to internet.