When Does The Internet Start

The ARPANET
The first subnet, which was the simplest and smallest form of the Internet, was formed in 1967 – and was named ARPANET after the name of ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Association). ARPANET was a result of several years of research. A research Wesley Clark suggested a network design which would be connected to more than one recipient computer for greater reliability. Also, the network design was a packet-switched network. ARPA bought the idea and gave a contract to BBN, a consulting firm, to design and implement the hardware and the software part of Wesley’s design. This network consisted of four minicomputers interconnected with 56kbps transmission lines and connected four different institutes. The ARPANET grew and more and more computers were added to the network. Soon the ARPANET spanned over entire US. It was the year 1972 when almost entire US was covered with the ARPANET. At the same time, NSF (the US National Science Foundation) designed its own subnet (NSFNET) which used hardware similar to the ARPNET but slightly different software.