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Internet History

Early Days
The internet is a global network of interconnected computers and other devices that we use to communicate and share information. It is composed of numerous smaller networks operated by businesses, governments, educational institutions, and individuals. These networks connect through a physical infrastructure of cables, satellite links, and wireless connections. But when was the first network invented?

1950s - 1980s
In the 1950s, US defense, research, and educational institutions developed the first computer networks for sharing information, resources and databases. However, at the time computers could only be connected if they were in the same area, and their ability to exchange data was limited. The invention of ARPANET changed that. In the 1980s, scientists created the building blocks for the internet of today — technologies like DNS, IRC, and AOL, until the first commercial ISPs brought the internet to home users.

ARPANet
In 1969, in the midst of the Cold War, the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) initiated a project called ARPANET with the goal of creating a network for computers to communicate with each other over large distances. ARPANET utilized a new networking system, called packet switching. The system made it possible for computers to send messages — private data packages — across the network.

First, ARPANET connected computers across the state — in UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. Later, it included the University of California in Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. Throughout the 70s, ARPANET expanded to include more universities, research centers, and government institutions. In the 1980s, ARPANET had completed its mission and was gradually phased out. The remaining networks were the precursors of our present day internet.

Email
The first message on ARPANET was sent from one computer to another in 1969 but it was a far cry from an email as we know it. The idea of sending nearly instantaneous messages from one device to another within an organization became so appealing that specialists started developing more complex protocols for sending them. However, one question remained — how do you indicate where the message is supposed to go? Ray Tomlinson, an American programmer working at ARPANET came up with the answer — the “@” symbol. In 1971, Tomlinson proposed to separate the user’s name from the destination computer with an “@”, addressing the messages “username@name of computer.” This is how we’ve been addressing emails ever since.

Initially, the email was used to communicate within internal networks of universities and research institutions. But the invention was so useful that programmers started working on the idea of sending emails to computers outside the internal network. As the internet expanded, email became an integral part of professional communication.

Widespread adoption of the email began in the 1990s with the rise of internet service providers (ISPs) offering free email services to individuals. Web-based email services (Hotmail and Yahoo mail) contributed to email’s popularity. At the start of the new millennium, email has already become a daily medium for communication, similar to a phone number.