The Internet, any source of information right under your finger at the press of a button

Imagine talking about the latest elections with someone three thousand miles away without receiving a tremendous phone bill. Or sending a letter to a friend or relative and having it arrive one second later. How would it feel to know that any source of information is at your fingertips at the press of a button? All of these are possible and more with a system of networks all connected and sending information at light speed from place to place known as the Internet. This is a trend word for the nineties yet it has a background that spans all the way back to the sixties. The history of the Internet is a full one at that even though it has only been around for about 30 years. It has grown to be the greatest collection of networks in the world, its origins go back to 1962.

In 1962 the original idea for this great network of computers sprung forth from a question 'How could U.S.

Internet!

[New York Bank Note Co. notice] (LOC)

English: ARPANET logical map circa 1977

authorities successfully communicate after a nuclear war?' The answer came from the Rand Corporation, America's foremost Cold War think-tank. Why not create a network of computers without one central main authoritative unit (Sterling 1) The Rand Corporation working along side the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) devised a plan. The network itself would be considered unreliable at all times; therefore it would never become too dependable and powerful. Each computer on the network or node would have its own authority to originate, pass, and receive messages. The name given to this network was the ARPANET.

To fully understand the ARPANET, an understanding of how a network works is needed. A network is a group of computers connected by a permanent cable or temporary phone line. The sole purpose of a network is...