It started with an error – The Internet’s predecessor started 50 years ago
Today marks 50 years since Arpanet was launched. This forerunner of the Internet was the first working computer network. On October 29, 1969 at 10:30 PM pst, the first message was sent via Arpanet. The system crashed after the first two letters.
The first successful message was sent about Arpanet by a student at the University of California at Los Angeles. An SDS Sigma 7 computer was used for this. The message arrived more than 500 kilometers away at the Stanford Research Institute. The message contained the text ‘LO’. It was supposed to be ‘LOGIN’, but the network crashed after the first two letters. Nevertheless, this was the first message ever sent over a digital network between two computers. An hour later, the system was repaired by programmers, after which it was actually possible to log in.
On November 21, a permanent link was established between the University of Los Angeles and Stanford. Two weeks later, on package night, the entire network was up and running with four nodes; the University of California at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the Stanford Research Institute and the University of Utah.
The first Arpanet imp-log, dated October 29, 1969
Arpanet grew over the years and by the end of 1971 the network already contained 23 host computers, all of which could communicate with each other. In 1973 Arpanet went international. Via a satellite link, it was connected to nodes of Nosar in Norway and University College in London. In the same year, the file transfer protocol, or FTP, was developed.
However, one of the biggest developments took place a year later; In 1974 Stanford presented a protocol to allow different networks to communicate with each other. The transmission control protocol/internet protocol, better known as tcp/ip, is still used today for data transfer over the internet and on computer networks. The protocols also work over LAN and home networks. The development of tcp and ip is the biggest step towards the internet as we know it today. In 1982 tcp/ip became the standard protocol of Arpanet.
In the following years, several computer networks arose, each of which was linked to Arpanet. This also included usenet, a network system that is still used today. In 1978, the very first spam email was sent to all 400 users of Arpanet. Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation sent out an “open house” announcement in response to new computer models about Arpanet; an area for which Thuerk later got one of the recipients, the US Department of Defense, on his roof. That ministry also ran the computer network at the time.
In 1983 the domain name system, also known as dns, was set up with the well-known tlds such as .com, .gov, .edu and .net. This system, which is still in full use today, had the advantage that modern domain names are considerably easier to remember than IP addresses for websites. It would be one of the last major developments Arpanet went through before the modern internet supplanted it. However, as computers and techniques became more sophisticated over the years, Arpanet began to show signs of ageing; the network was slow and outdated. In 1990 Arpanet officially and definitively made way for the worldwide internet as we know it. Thanks to collaborations between providers, the internet could be commercially exploited. However, the work of the bright minds of two American universities still plays an enormous role in our digital society today.
The 1974 Arpanet Network Card