Connections

By 1980, Arpanet had over 10,000 on-line users, at 400 host computers at universities, government sites, military installations, private companies, and non-profit institutions. Other networks sprang up based on the same technology. Eventually, the name Arpanet was dropped for the simpler Internet, a network of computer networks.

Today, millions of people have access to a Web of more than 46,000 networks used in over 125 countries. According to projections, millions more will get wired by the end of the century.

Years ago, some smart computer scientists had an idea. Wouldn't it be great if you could link two computers so they could share resources and information? But, they had a problem. They had to figure out a way for different kinds of computers to speak the same language and send the information over regular phone lines. They came up with the ideas that made the Internet possible.

These ideas gave birth to the ARPANET, the first national computer network, which was built by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1969. Initially it connected a group of scientists at four universities and allowed them to work together, despite the physical distance.