Origins and Recent History of the Internet
The Internet started as an experiment in the late 1960s by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now called DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense11. DARPA experimented with the connection of computer networks by giving grants to multiple universities and private companies to get them involved in the research.
In December 1969, an experimental network went online with the connection of a four-node network connected via 56 kbps circuits. The new technology proved to be highly successful and led to the creation of two similar military networks—MILNET in the U.S. and MINET in Europe. Thousands of hosts and users subsequently connected their private networks (universities and government) to the ARPANET, thus creating the initial "ARPA Internet." Figures 1-1 and 1-2 illustrate the ARPANET
in the early days, from its inception in 1969 to its growing number of connectors in 1976.
Figure 1-1. ARPANET Architecture, December 1969
Figure 1-1. ARPANET Architecture, December 1969
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