Internet turns 40!

Oct. 29, 1969 was the day the journey of Internet started. On this day, an attempt was made to transmit a message between two computers connected through ARPANET, which over the years took the form of Internet.

The engineers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) had created a network, supported by the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, to transmit a message through terminals that were installed at these institutes.

The message comprised the word ‘login’. The network was being tested by Charley Kline at SRI.

Kline entered the word ‘L’ and asked his colleague, through the telephone, at UCLA if his screen transmitted the letter.

The engineers were successful in sending the first two letters, but when Kline entered the letter G, Bill Duvall reported that the system had crashed.

Though the first step in the journey faltered, a foundation for what we today call Internet was laid.

Significant accomplishments
The ARPANET, over the next few years, led to the creation of packet-switching model of digital networking. The networks were successful, but they had limited accessibility as most of them were internal networks.

This spread of internetworking began to form into a global network that would be called the Internet, and eventually ARPANET in the mid 70s went global with two terminals, one installed in the U.K. and one in Norway. Later in 1984, domain names like .com, .gov, and .edu were formed.

Adoption and interconnection occurred quickly across the advanced telecommunication networks of the western world. This later penetrated into the rest of the world.

End users share memories
As Internet turns 40, many users have taken to blogs and forums and are discussing their experience with the Internet.

A user named janettwokay posted his view on Yahoo Tech, “Happy birthday to the Internet! I remember being in engineering school and a classmate showed me how to connect to Stanford's computer from our university's computer in the Midwest. I thought to myself that it was pretty nifty.

"Now twenty-something years later, I think it's beyond nifty. Connecting with computers Connecting with computers instantaneously all over the world is a way of life.”

Another user named Henry stated on mashable.com, “great news i have to say that it's internet that enrich our life thanks for it.”

“Prodigy online is where it started for me. Though a lot of my buddies in middle school and I were on a local BBS called Spider Island, which allowed us free email and forums :). Everything was (and is) so exciting, in my opinion the advent and acceptance of the internet is one of the largest moments in the history of man.

Like with other groundbreaking advancements in communication (telegraph/telephone) it will change how we function as a world,” stated Chris Lorenz on the same forum.