HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

The Internet started as a small network through a project by the United States Department of defence by the name ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). During 1970s this military network was connected to the computers of universities and companies that worked for the department of defence. In 1984 the military network split from ARPANET which used TCP/IP protocol for communication was thereafter used for scientific research and information sharing. Later, several other network merged with ARPANET to form a large network. ARPANET is considered as the first wide area network (WAN). Vinton Gray Cerf who was instrumental in the development of Internet and TCP/IP protocol, is considered as the father of Internet

            

In 1989, Tim Berners Lee, a researcher, proposed the idea of World Wide Web (WWW). Tim Berners Lee and his team are credited with inventing Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), HTML and the technology for a web server and a web browser. Using hyperlink embedded in hypertext the web developers were able to connect web pages. They could design attractive webpages containing text, sound and graphics. This change witnessed a massive expansion of the internet in the 1990s.

                            

Various types of computers loaded with diverse operating systems in different organisations at geographically distant locations joined this network making it a global phenomenon. TCP/IP protocol is used as the  communications protocol for internet. Any computer that joins internet should follow the TCP/IP protocol. In 1998, internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (ICANN) was established. ICANN does not control the internet content; rather it develops policies on the internet's Uniform Resource Locaters (URL). 

Today, internet is the largest public network that connects billions of computers all over the world and provides several services like searching, email, file transfer, social networking, etc. The internet is a interconnected system of computer networks that serves the users all over the world.

An Intranet is considered as a private computer network similar to internet that uses TCP/IP protocol to share information, software or services within an organisation. An intranet can host websites, provide e-mail services, file transfer and other services available on Internet.

When an intranet is made accessible to some computers that are not part of a company's private network is called an extranet. A network that allows vendors and business partners to access a company resource can be considered as an example of extranet.