Who Invented The Internet And How It Works
The internet, an intricate web of networks that connects devices worldwide, has become an integral part of our daily lives. But how did this incredible network come to be? Who invented the internet, and how does it work?
Like many technological breakthroughs, the internet did not have a single inventor. Rather, it was developed gradually over decades through the work and research of many engineers, scientists, and visionarie
The story of the internet
began in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the U.S. Department of Defense introduced ARPANET, the first network that allowed different computers to communicate and share resources. While ARPANET laid the foundation of the modern internet, it was initially a closed network used only by the military and research institutions.
During this time, researchers at various universities also began developing methods that would allow computers on different networks to share information and communicate through a common set of rules. This work led to the creation of TCP/IP, the fundamental communication protocol that computers use to connect to each other on the internet.
In the 1980s, the National Science Foundation began building NSFNET, an educational network that allowed academic and research institutions across the U.S. to share resources. NSFNET served as a backbone network and allowed different networks to be connected and routed between each other.
As more networks adopted TCP/IP and began connecting to NSFNET, the internet as we know it today started to take shape. By the early 1990s, the commercial internet became available to the general public. And from there, the internet grew at an explosive pace.
At its core, the internet relies on several crucial underlying technologies:
- • IP addresses - Every device that connects to the Internet has a unique numerical address called the IP address. When you enter a website address into your browser, the IP address is found through DNS servers and your request is sent to that device.
- • DNS servers - DNS servers translate website names into IP addresses. They allow us to type google.com instead of its IP address, making the web more human-readable.
- • Routing technologies - Routers transfer data packets between different networks using IP addresses. They determine the best path for sending information between any two devices on the internet.
- • URLs - Uniform Resource Locators or URLs serve as a global address system for all resources, files, and documents on the internet. They identify websites, files or pages that your browser requests.
- • TCP/IP protocol suite - The basic communication language of the internet, TCP/IP includes protocols like TCP for ensuring packets are delivered correctly and IP for addressing and routing packets between devices.
- • Hardware infrastructure - The physical components that comprise the internet include networking switches, fiber optic cables, servers, routers, WiFi access points and more.
So while the internet had no single "inventor", it was conceived through the combined efforts and visions of countless researchers, scientists and engineers who developed the fundamental technologies that make the internet work. They turned a network that initially served the military and academics into the hugely successful worldwide network that connects billions of people today.