Week 1 - The Past and Present of Internet

THE PAST

The father of computers is called the ARPANET. It is the first network of computers that is created in 1969. The first message message that was being sent over ARPANET was later evolved into the internet we have today. Packed switched networks were developed in the late 1960s and the early 1970s using a variety of protocols. The ARPANET is the reason why the Professors developed protocols for networking, where many separate networks can be joined together into the same network. Telnet was the first commercial version of ARPANET which was launched in 1974. In 1981, BITNET was introduced. It was connected to IBM mainframes around the educational community and around the world to provide mail services. A link was provided so that the BITNET and ARPANET can be connected. Internet was only started in 1982 when ARPANET started using TCP/IP standard. The DNS (domain naming system) was implemented in 1984.

TCP/IP standard is where the different networks methods got unified. The differences between network protocols were hidden by using a common internetwork protocol instead of the network being responsible for reliability. With the roles of the network being reduced to the bare minimum, it is now possible to join almost any networks together, no matter what's their characteristics. The development of TCP/IP implementations for many operating systems has scheduled a migration of all hosts on all of its packet networks to TCP/IP.

The map of TCP/IP test network in 1982

THE PRESENT

With TCP/IP in place, us connecting to internet today has become so much more convenient. You can access to the internet on your laptop, smartphones, tablets. You can access to the internet wherever you are, whether you are on the subways, in class, waiting in a queue for starbucks or even in the washroom. Internet has become a necessity irregardless of your age. I see a 3 years old girl tapping on youtube on her iPad away, her mother standing beside her surfing Facebook on her smartphone, the man standing near them in executive suit busy typing emails while waiting for the train to arrive at the stop, everyone is using the internet these days. The impact of the internet is so great that almost everyone cannot live without the internet. 

An advantage of the internet is that you can join a community. You can create new social contacts all over the world, which you could not do so easy without the internet.Such communities can also help people who can not go out to find friends in the real life because they are disabled. Therefore they can chat with other people via the internet. Sometimes it is also easier for people, who are afraid to look into the other’s face while talking, to chat with a person that they do not know. There is something between them which makes it easier for them to communicate. It also does not matter if you have a terrible appearance because you can pretend to be whatever you want. You can also change your gender and your age to talk about topics which you do not normally do. However, there are no time and place limitations and there are no boundaries, both geographical and political. You can chat with people in Australia and you have freedom of your mind in a way. Moreover the internet is much cheaper than the real life, e.g. phoning a friend in Australia costs more than to chat with him.From my point of view the e-mail has replaced the traditional letter. You do not have to buy stamps anymore and it is much faster and also for free. You can also add files to your E-mail and that’s why a big data transfer is possible. Therefore you do not have to send disks with information around the world anymore and you have your information in a digital way. Another free service of the internet is sending SMS. You can save a lot of money if you do not send it with your mobile phone especially from Austria to America. You also have the opportunity to register as a user. Then you can use more things, e.g. sending E-postcards, I-messages (messages between registered users), and lead an address book. You can also place your digital photos in the internet. With a password and a login name your friends in America can look at your photos without sending them to them. Another important part is online gaming. You can play with people from all over the world and share your knowledge. In my opinion it’s more exiting to play with friends than playing alone.Additionally, another big advantage of the internet is the easy access to information. Online reference books and dictionaries replace the way to the bookshop or to the library. It is again cheaper to search for information in the internet than to buy a book, that is old after one year. In the internet a lot of information is renewed and up to date. You can also find information which is very new and a book does not exist yet. Moreover you can read the daily newspapers from all over the world, sometimes for free. You do not have to buy them anymore. In addition, most newspaper sites have an archive in which you can search for old articles. However, the internet is also a big “advertising company”. A lot of enterprises have a homepage with ads and support opportunities. On some of them you can order products online. Then you do not have to go to the city anymore. You avoid waiting in front of the cash because of a long queue. Moreover, you can get the newest stock exchange courses because the stock exchange in the Internet is always the most current one. You also have the ability to tell the computer to buy shares when the course is down. Besides you can learn with the internet. CBTs (Computer Based Training) already exist but you can also join an internet course with other members. Furthermore you can hold videoconferences which means that e.g. your teacher is sitting in his office in America and teaching you in Austria. This is very important in the medical sector because doctors from all over the world can join an operation. So specialists can give tips and help other doctors to complete the operation successfully. The patient has not to wait until a specialist will come from America. But this is only available because of the internet 2 which is much faster. The internet is a database full of information and offers us a lot of services, sometimes for free. This makes our life easier and sometimes also cheaper. All in all I think that the internet is very useful especially for students.