HISTORY OF THE INTERNENT

The Internet has its roots in a networking project started by the Pentagons Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) an agency of the U.S. Department of Defence. ARPAS goal was to build a network that (1) allowed scientists at different physical location to share information and work together on militory and scientific projects and (2) could function even if part of the network were disable or destoryed by a disaster such as a nuclear attack. That network, called ARPANET, became function in September 1969, linking scientific and acadmic researchers across the United States. The original ARPANET consisted of four main computers, one each located at the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Standford Research Institute, and the University of Utah.Each compter served as a host on the network. Some organizations connected entire networks to ARPANET to take advantage of high speed communications it offerd. A host, more commonly known today as a server,is any computer that provides service and connections to other computers on a network . Host often use high_speed communications to transfer data and messages over a network. As researchers and others realized the great benefit of using ARPANETs e_mail to share data and information, ARPANET underwent phenomenal growth. By 1984, ARPANET had more than 1,000 individual computers linked as hosts. Today, more than 500 million hosts connect the Internent.