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+
+Network Working Group R. Zakon
+Request for Comments: 2235 MITRE
+FYI: 32 November 1997
+Category: Informational
+
+
+ Hobbes' Internet Timeline
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+ This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
+ not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
+ memo is unlimited.
+
+Copyright Notice
+
+ Copyright (C) Robert H. Zakon and The Internet Society (1997).
+ All Rights Reserved.
+
+1. Introduction
+
+ This document presents a history of the Internet in timeline fashion,
+ highlighting some of the key events and technologies which helped
+ shape the Internet as we know it today. A growth summary of the
+ Internet and some associated technologies is also included.
+
+2. Hobbes' Internet Timeline
+
+ Excerpted from the author's copyrighted work of the same name. The
+ most current version of Hobbes' Internet Timeline is available at
+ http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ 1950s
+
+1957
+ USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite. In
+ response, US forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
+ within the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in
+ science and technology applicable to the military (:amk:)
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ 1960s
+
+1962
+ Paul Baran, RAND: "On Distributed Communications Networks"
+ - Packet-switching (PS) networks; no single outage point
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+1965
+ ARPA sponsors study on "cooperative network of time-sharing
+ computers"
+ - TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and Q-32 at System Development
+ Corporation (Santa Monica, CA) are directly linked (without
+ packet switches)
+
+1967
+ ACM Symposium on Operating Principles
+ - Plan presented for a packet-switching network
+ - First design paper on ARPANET published by Lawrence G. Roberts
+
+ National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England develops
+ NPL Data Network under D. W. Davies
+
+1968
+ PS-network presented to the Advanced Research Projects Agency
+ (ARPA)
+
+1969
+ ARPANET commissioned by DoD for research into networking
+ - First node at UCLA, Network Measurements Center
+ [SDS SIGMA 7, SEX] and soon after at:
+ - Stanford Research Institute (SRI), NIC [SDS940/Genie]
+ - UCSB, Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics
+ [IBM 360/75, OS/MVT]
+ - Univ of Utah, Graphics [DEC PDP-10, Tenex]
+ - use of Information Message Processors (IMP) [Honeywell 516
+ mini computer with 12K of memory developed by Bolt Beranek
+ and Newman, Inc. (BBN)
+
+ First Request for Comment (RFC): "Host Software" by Steve Crocker
+
+ Univ of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State Univ establish
+ X.25-based Merit network for students, faculty, alumni (:sw1:)
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ 1970s
+
+ Store-and-forward networks
+ - Used electronic mail technology and extended it to
+ conferencing
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+1970
+ ALOHAnet developed by Norman Abrahamson, Univ of Hawaii (:sk2:)
+ - connected to the ARPANET in 1972
+
+ ARPANET hosts start using Network Control Protocol (NCP).
+
+1971
+ 15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, Univ of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND,
+ SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames
+
+ Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents email program to send messages across
+ a distributed network. The original program was derived from two
+ others: an intra-machine email program (SNDMSG) and an experimental
+ file transfer program (CPYNET) (:amk:irh:)
+
+1972
+ International Conference on Computer Communications with
+ demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines and the Terminal
+ Interface Processor (TIP) organized by Bob Kahn.
+
+ InterNetworking Working Group (INWG) created to address need for
+ establishing agreed upon protocols. Chairman: Vinton Cerf.
+
+ Telnet specification (RFC 318)
+
+1973
+ First international connections to the ARPANET: University College
+ of London (England) and Royal Radar Establishment (Norway)
+
+ Bob Metcalfe's Harvard PhD Thesis outlines idea for Ethernet
+ (:amk:)
+
+ Bob Kahn poses Internet problem, starts internetting research
+ program at ARPA. Vinton Cerf sketches gateway architecture in March
+ on back of envelope in hotel lobby in San Francisco (:vgc:)
+
+ Cerf and Kahn present basic Internet ideas at INWG in September at
+ Univ of Sussex, Brighton, UK (:vgc:)
+
+ File Transfer specification (RFC 454)
+
+1974
+ Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network
+ Intercommunication" which specified in detail the design of a
+ Transmission Control Program (TCP). [IEEE Trans Comm] (:amk:)
+
+ BBN opens Telenet, the first public packet data service (a
+ commercial version of ARPANET) (:sk2:)
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 3]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+1975
+ Operational management of Internet transferred to DCA (now DISA)
+
+ "Jargon File", by Raphael Finkel at SAIL, first released (:esr:)
+
+ Shockwave Rider written by John Brunner (:pds:)
+
+1976
+ Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom sends out an e-mail
+ (various Net folks have e-mailed dates ranging from 1971 to 1978;
+ 1976 was the most submitted and the only found in print)
+
+ UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs and
+ distributed with UNIX one year later.
+
+1977
+ THEORYNET created by Larry Landweber at Univ of Wisconsin providing
+ electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using
+ a locally developed email system and TELENET for access to server).
+
+ Mail specification (RFC 733)
+
+ Tymshare launches Tymnet
+
+ First demonstration of ARPANET/Packet Radio Net/SATNET operation of
+ Internet protocols with BBN-supplied gateways in July (:vgc:)
+
+1979
+ Meeting between Univ of Wisconsin, DARPA, NSF, and computer
+ scientists from many universities to establish a Computer Science
+ Department research computer network (organized by Larry Landweber)
+
+ USENET established using UUCP between Duke and UNC by Tom Truscott,
+ Jim Ellis, and Steve Bellovin. All original groups were under net.*
+ hierarchy.
+
+ First MUD, MUD1, by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw at U of Essex
+
+ ARPA establishes the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB)
+
+ Packet Radio Network (PRNET) experiment starts with DARPA funding.
+ Most communications take place between mobile vans. ARPANET
+ connection via SRI.
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ 1980s
+
+1981
+ BITNET, the "Because It's Time NETwork"
+ - Started as a cooperative network at the City University of New
+ York, with the first connection to Yale (:feg:)
+ - Original acronym stood for 'There' instead of 'Time' in
+ reference to the free NJE protocols provided with the IBM
+ systems
+ - Provides electronic mail and listserv servers to distribute
+ information, as well as file transfers
+
+ CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) built by a collaboration of
+ computer scientists and Univ of Delaware, Purdue Univ, Univ of
+ Wisconsin, RAND Corporation and BBN through seed money granted by
+ NSF to provide networking services (especially email) to university
+ scientists with no access to ARPANET. CSNET later becomes known as
+ the Computer and Science Network. (:amk,lhl:)
+
+ Minitel (Teletel) is deployed across France by France Telecom.
+
+ True Names written by Vernor Vinge (:pds:)
+
+1982
+ DCA and ARPA establish the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and
+ Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as
+ TCP/IP, for ARPANET. (:vgc:)
+ - This leads to one of the first definitions of an "internet" as
+ a connected set of networks, specifically those using TCP/IP,
+ and "Internet" as connected TCP/IP internets.
+ - DoD declares TCP/IP suite to be standard for DoD (:vgc:)
+
+ EUnet (European UNIX Network) is created by EUUG to provide email
+ and USENET services. (:glg:)
+ - original connections between the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden,
+ and UK
+
+ External Gateway Protocol (RFC 827) specification. EGP is used for
+ gateways between networks.
+
+1983
+ Name server developed at Univ of Wisconsin, no longer requiring
+ users to know the exact path to other systems.
+
+ Cutover from NCP to TCP/IP (1 January)
+
+ CSNET / ARPANET gateway put in place
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 5]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET; the latter became integrated
+ with the Defense Data Network created the previous year.
+
+ Desktop workstations come into being, many with Berkeley UNIX which
+ includes IP networking software.
+
+ Networking needs switch from having a single, large time sharing
+ computer connected to the Internet at each site, to instead
+ connecting entire local networks.
+
+ Internet Activities Board (IAB) established, replacing ICCB
+
+ Berkeley releases 4.2BSD incorporating TCP/IP (:mpc:)
+
+ EARN (European Academic and Research Network) established. Very
+ similar to the way BITNET works with a gateway funded by IBM.
+
+ FidoNet developed by Tom Jennings.
+
+1984
+ Domain Name System (DNS) introduced.
+
+ Number of hosts breaks 1,000
+
+ JUNET (Japan Unix Network) established using UUCP.
+
+ JANET (Joint Academic Network) established in the UK using the
+ Coloured Book protocols; previously SERCnet.
+
+ Moderated newsgroups introduced on USENET (mod.*)
+
+ Neuromancer written by William Gibson
+
+1985
+ Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) started
+
+ Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at USC is given responsibility
+ for DNS root management by DCA, and SRI for DNS NIC registrations
+
+ Symbolics.com is assigned on 15 March to become the first registered
+ domain. Other firsts: cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, ucla.edu
+ (April); css.gov (June); mitre.org, .uk (July)
+
+ 100 years to the day of the last spike being driven on the cross-
+ Canada railroad, the last Canadian university is connected to BITNET
+ in a one year effort to have coast-to-coast connectivity. (:kf1:)
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 6]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+1986
+ NSFNET created (backbone speed of 56Kbps)
+ - NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide
+ high-computing power for all (JVNC@Princeton, PSC@Pittsburgh,
+ SDSC@UCSD, NCSA@UIUC, Theory Center@Cornell).
+ - This allows an explosion of connections, especially from
+ universities.
+
+ NSF-funded SDSCNET, JVNCNET, SURANET, and NYSERNET operational
+ (:sw1:)
+
+ Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Research Task
+ Force (IRTF) comes into existence under the IAB. First IETF meeting
+ held in January at Linkabit in San Diego
+
+ The first Freenet (Cleveland) comes on-line 16 July under the
+ auspices of the Society for Public Access Computing (SoPAC). Later
+ Freenet program management assumed by the National Public
+ Telecomputing Network (NPTN) in 1989 (:sk2,rab:)
+
+ Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) designed to enhance Usenet
+ news performance over TCP/IP.
+
+ Mail Exchanger (MX) records developed by Craig Partridge allow
+ non-IP network hosts to have domain addresses.
+
+ The great USENET name change; moderated newsgroups changed in 1987.
+
+ BARRNET (Bay Area Regional Research Network) established using high
+ speed links. Operational in 1987.
+
+1987
+ NSF signs a cooperative agreement to manage the NSFNET backbone
+ with Merit Network, Inc. (IBM and MCI involvement was through an
+ agreement with Merit). Merit, IBM, and MCI later founded ANS.
+
+ UUNET is founded with Usenix funds to provide commercial UUCP and
+ Usenet access. Originally an experiment by Rick Adams and Mike
+ O'Dell
+
+ Email link established between Germany and China using CSNET
+ protocols, with the first message from China sent on 20 September.
+ (:wz1:)
+
+ 1000th RFC: "Request For Comments reference guide"
+
+ Number of hosts breaks 10,000
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 7]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ Number of BITNET hosts breaks 1,000
+
+1988
+ 2 November - Internet worm burrows through the Net, affecting
+ ~6,000 of the 60,000 hosts on the Internet (:ph1:)
+
+ CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) formed by DARPA in response
+ to the needs exhibited during the Morris worm incident. The worm is
+ the only advisory issued this year.
+
+ DoD chooses to adopt OSI and sees use of TCP/IP as an interim. US
+ Government OSI Profile (GOSIP) defines the set of protocols to be
+ supported by Government purchased products (:gck:)
+
+ Los Nettos network created with no federal funding, instead
+ supported by regional members (founding: Caltech, TIS, UCLA, USC,
+ ISI).
+
+ NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544Mbps)
+
+ CERFnet (California Education and Research Federation network)
+ founded by Susan Estrada.
+
+ Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed by Jarkko Oikarinen (:zby:)
+
+ First Canadian regionals join NSFNET: ONet via Cornell, RISQ via
+ Princeton, BCnet via Univ of Washington (:ec1:)
+
+ FidoNet gets connected to the Net, enabling the exchange of e-mail
+ and news (:tp1:)
+
+ Countries connecting to NSFNET: Canada (CA), Denmark (DK), Finland
+ (FI), France (FR), Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Sweden (SE)
+
+1989
+ Number of hosts breaks 100,000
+
+ RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeens) formed (by European service providers)
+ to ensure the necessary administrative and technical coordination
+ to allow the operation of the pan-European IP Network. (:glg:)
+
+ First relays between a commercial electronic mail carrier and the
+ Internet: MCI Mail through the Corporation for the National
+ Research Initiative (CNRI), and Compuserve through Ohio State Univ
+ (:jg1,ph1:)
+
+ Corporation for Research and Education Networking (CREN) is formed
+ by merging CSNET into BITNET
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 8]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ AARNET - Australian Academic Research Network - set up by AVCC and
+ CSIRO; introduced into service the following year (:gmc:)
+
+ Cuckoo's Egg written by Clifford Stoll tells the real-life tale of
+ a German cracker group who infiltrated numerous US facilities
+
+ CERT advisories: 7
+
+ Countries connecting to NSFNET: Australia (AU), Germany (DE),
+ Israel (IL), Italy (IT), Japan (JP), Mexico (MX), Netherlands (NL),
+ New Zealand (NZ), Puerto Rico (PR), United Kingdom (UK)
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ 1990s
+
+1990
+ ARPANET ceases to exist
+
+ Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is founded by Mitch Kapor
+
+ Archie released by Peter Deutsch, Alan Emtage, and Bill Heelan at
+ McGill
+
+ Hytelnet released by Peter Scott (Univ of Saskatchewan)
+
+ The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the first
+ commercial provider of Internet dial-up access
+
+ ISO Development Environment (ISODE) developed to provide an
+ approach for OSI migration for the DoD. ISODE software allows OSI
+ application to operate over TCP/IP (:gck:)
+
+ CA*net formed by 10 regional networks as national Canadian backbone
+ with direct connection to NSFNET (:ec1:)
+
+ The first remotely operated machine to be hooked up to the
+ Internet, the Internet Toaster, (controlled via SNMP) makes its
+ debut at Interop.
+
+ CERT advisories: 12, reports: 130
+
+ Countries connecting to NSFNET: Argentina (AR), Austria (AT),
+ Belgium (BE), Brazil (BR), Chile (CL), Greece (GR), India (IN),
+ Ireland (IE), Korea (KR), Spain (ES), Switzerland (CH)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 9]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+1991
+ Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed by
+ General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance Systems International, Inc.
+ (PSInet), and UUNET Technologies, Inc. (AlterNet), after NSF lifts
+ restrictions on the commercial use of the Net (:glg:)
+
+ Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), invented by Brewster Kahle,
+ released by Thinking Machines Corporation
+
+ Gopher released by Paul Lindner and Mark P. McCahill from the Univ
+ of Minnessota
+
+ World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim Berners-Lee developer
+ (:pb1:)
+
+ PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) released by Philip Zimmerman (:ad1:)
+
+ US High Performance Computing Act (Gore 1) establishes the National
+ Research and Education Network (NREN)
+
+ NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps)
+
+ NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion
+ packets/month
+
+ Defense Data Network NIC contract awarded by DISA to Government
+ Systems Inc. who takes over from SRI in May
+
+ Start of JANET IP Service (JIPS) which signalled the changeover
+ from Coloured Book software to TCP/IP within the UK academic
+ network. IP was initially 'tunnelled' within X.25. (:gst:)
+
+ CERT advisories: 23
+
+ Countries connecting to NSFNET: Croatia (HR), Czech Repulic (CZ),
+ Hong Kong (HK), Hungary (HU), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Singapore
+ (SG), South Africa (ZA), Taiwan (TW), Tunisia (TN)
+
+1992
+ Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered
+
+ Number of hosts breaks 1,000,000
+
+ First MBONE audio multicast (March) and video multicast (November)
+
+ RIPE Network Coordination Center (NCC) created in April to provide
+ address registration and coordination services to the European
+ Internet community (:dk1:)
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 10]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ IAB reconstituted as the Internet Architecture Board and becomes
+ part of the Internet Society
+
+ Veronica, a gopherspace search tool, is released by Univ of Nevada
+
+ World Bank comes on-line
+
+ Japan's first ISP, Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), is formed by
+ Koichi Suzuki
+
+ The term "Surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly
+ (:jap:)
+
+ Internet Hunt started by Rick Gates
+
+ CERT advisories: 21, reports: 800
+
+ Countries connecting to NSFNET: Antarctica (AQ), Cameroon (CM),
+ Cyprus (CY), Ecuador (EC), Estonia (EE), Kuwait (KW), Latvia (LV),
+ Luxembourg (LU), Malaysia (MY), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI),
+ Thailand (TH), Venezuela (VE)
+
+1993
+ InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet services:
+ (:sc1:)
+ - directory and database services (AT&T)
+ - registration services (Network Solutions Inc.)
+ - information services (General Atomics/CERFnet)
+
+ US White House comes on-line (http://www.whitehouse.gov/):
+ - President Bill Clinton: president@whitehouse.gov
+ - Vice-President Al Gore: vice-president@whitehouse.gov
+
+ Worms of a new kind find their way around the Net - WWW Worms (W4),
+ joined by Spiders, Wanderers, Crawlers, and Snakes ...
+
+ Internet Talk Radio begins broadcasting (:sk2:)
+
+ United Nations (UN) comes on-line (:vgc:)
+
+ US National Information Infrastructure Act
+
+ Businesses and media really take notice of the Internet
+
+ Mosaic takes the Internet by storm; WWW proliferates at a 341,634%
+ annual growth rate of service traffic. Gopher's growth is 997%.
+
+ CERT advisories: 18, reports: 1300
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 11]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ Countries connecting to NSFNET: Bulgaria (BG), Costa Rica (CR),
+ Egypt (EG), Fiji (FJ), Ghana (GH), Guam (GU), Indonesia (ID),
+ Kazakhstan (KZ), Kenya (KE), Liechtenstein (LI), Peru (PE), Romania
+ (RO), Russian Federation (RU), Turkey (TR), Ukraine (UA), UAE (AE),
+ US Virgin Islands (VI)
+
+1994
+ ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary
+
+ Communities begin to be wired up directly to the Internet
+ (Lexington and Cambridge, MA, USA)
+
+ US Senate and House provide information servers
+
+ Shopping malls arrive on the Internet
+
+ First cyberstation, RT-FM, broadcasts from Interop in Las Vegas
+
+ The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests
+ that GOSIP should incorporate TCP/IP and drop the "OSI-only"
+ requirement (:gck:)
+
+ Arizona law firm of Canter & Siegel "spams" the Internet with email
+ advertising green card lottery services; Net citizens flame back
+
+ NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month
+
+ Yes, it's true - you can now order pizza from the Hut online
+
+ WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd most popular service on the Net
+ (behind ftp-data) based on % of packets and bytes traffic
+ distribution on NSFNET
+
+ Japanese Prime Minister on-line
+
+ UK's HM Treasury on-line
+
+ New Zealand's Info Tech Prime Minister on-line
+
+ First Virtual, the first cyberbank, open up for business
+
+ Radio stations start rockin' (rebroadcasting) round the clock on
+ the Net: WXYC at Univ of NC, WJHK at Univ of KS-Lawrence, KUGS at
+ Western WA Univ
+
+ Trans-European Research and Education Network Association (TERENA)
+ is formed by the merger of RARE and EARN, with representatives from
+ 38 countries as well as CERN and ECMWF. TERERNA's aim is to
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 12]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ "promote and participate in the development of a high quality
+ international information and telecommunications infrastructure for
+ the benefit of research and education"
+
+ CERT advisories: 15, reports: 2300
+
+ Countries connecting to NSFNET: Algeria (DZ), Armenia (AM), Bermuda
+ (BM), Burkina Faso (BF), China (CN), Colombia (CO), Jamaica (JM),
+ Lebanon (LB), Lithuania (LT), Macau (MO), Morocco (MA), New
+ Caledonia, Nicaragua (NI), Niger (NE), Panama (PA), Philippines
+ (PH), Senegal (SN), Sri Lanka (LK), Swaziland (SZ), Uruguay (UY),
+ Uzbekistan (UZ)
+
+1995
+ NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main US backbone traffic
+ now routed through interconnected network providers
+
+ The new NSFNET is born as NSF establishes the very high speed
+ Backbone Network Service (vBNS) linking super-computing centers:
+ NCAR, NCSA, SDSC, CTC, PSC
+
+ Hong Kong police disconnect all but 1 of the colony's Internet
+ providers in search of a hacker. 10,000 people are left without Net
+ access. (:api:)
+
+ RealAudio, an audio streaming technology, lets the Net hear in near
+ real-time
+
+ Radio HK, the first 24 hr., Internet-only radio station starts
+ broadcasting
+
+ WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as the service with greatest
+ traffic on NSFNet based on packet count, and in April based on byte
+ count
+
+ Traditional online dial-up systems (Compuserve, America Online,
+ Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access
+
+ A number of Net related companies go public, with Netscape leading
+ the pack with the 3rd largest ever NASDAQ IPO share value (9
+ August)
+
+ Thousands in Minneapolis-St. Paul (USA) lose Net access after
+ transients start a bonfire under a bridge at the Univ of MN causing
+ fiber-optic cables to melt (30 July)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 13]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ Registration of domain names is no longer free. Beginning 14
+ September, a $50 annual fee has been imposed, which up until now
+ was subsidized by NSF. NSF continues to pay for .edu registration,
+ and on an interim basis for .gov
+
+ The Vatican comes on-line
+
+ The Canadian Government comes on-line
+
+ The first official Internet wiretap was successful in helping the
+ Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) aprehend three
+ individuals who were illegally manufacturing and selling cell phone
+ cloning equipment and electronic devices
+
+ Operation Home Front connects, for the first time, soldiers in the
+ field with their families back home via the Internet.
+
+ Richard White becomes the first person to be declared a munition,
+ under the USA's arms export control laws, because of an RSA file
+ security encryption program emblazoned on his arm (:wired496:)
+
+ CERT advisories: 18, reports: 2412
+
+ Country domains registered: Ethiopia (ET), Cote d'Ivoire (CI), Cook
+ Islands (CK) Cayman Islands (KY), Anguilla (AI), Gibraltar (GI),
+ Vatican (VA), Kiribati (KI), Kyrgyzstan (KG), Madagascar (MG),
+ Mauritius (MU), Micronesia (FM), Monaco (MC), Mongolia (MN), Nepal
+ (NP), Nigeria (NG), Western Samoa (WS), San Marino (SM), Tanzania
+ (TZ), Tonga (TO), Uganda (UG), Vanuatu (VU)
+
+ Technologies of the Year: WWW, Search engines Emerging
+ Technologies: Mobile code (JAVA, JAVAscript), Virtual environments
+ (VRML), Collaborative tools
+
+1996
+ Internet phones catch the attention of US telecommunication
+ companies who ask the US Congress to ban the technology (which has
+ been around for years)
+
+ The controversial US Communications Decency Act (CDA) becomes law
+ in the US in order to prohibit distribution of indecent materials
+ over the Net. A few months later a three-judge panel imposes an
+ injunction against its enforcement. Supreme Court unanimously rules
+ most of it unconstitutional in 1997.
+
+ 9,272 organizations find themselves unlisted after the InterNIC
+ drops their name service as a result of not having paid their
+ domain name fee
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 14]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ Various ISPs suffer extended service outages, bringing into
+ question whether they will be able to handle the growing number of
+ users. AOL (19 hours), Netcom (13 hours), AT&T WorldNet (28 hours -
+ email only)
+
+ New Yorks' Public Access Networks Corp (PANIX) is shut down after
+ repeated SYN attacks by a cracker using methods outlined in a
+ hacker magazine (2600)
+
+ Various US Government sites are hacked into and their content
+ changed, including CIA, Department of Justice, Air Force
+
+ MCI upgrades Internet backbone adding ~13,000 ports, bringing the
+ effective speed from 155Mbps to 622Mbps.
+
+ The Internet Ad Hoc Committee announces plans to add 7 new generic
+ Top Level Domains (gTLD): .firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info,
+ registrars worldwide.
+
+ A malicious cancelbot is released on USENET wiping out more than
+ 25,000 messages.
+
+ The WWW browser war, fought primarily between Netscape and
+ Microsoft, has rushed in a new age in software development, whereby
+ new releases are made quarterly with the help of Internet users
+ eager to test upcoming (beta) versions.
+
+ Restrictions on Internet use around the world:
+ - China: requires users and ISPs to register with the police
+ - Germany: cuts off access to some newsgroups carried on
+ Compuserve
+ - Saudi Arabia: confines Internet access to universities and
+ hospitals
+ - Singapore: requires political and religious content providers
+ to register with the state
+ - New Zealand: classifies computer disks as "publications" that
+ can be censored and seized
+ - source: Human Rights Watch
+
+ vBNS additions: Baylor College of Medicine, Georgia Tech, Iowa
+ State Univ, Ohio State Univ, Old Dominion Univ, Univ of CA, Univ of
+ CO, Univ of Chicago, Univ of IL, Univ of MN, Univ of PA, Univ of
+ TX, Rice Univ
+
+ CERT advisories: 27, reports: 2573
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 15]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ Country domains registered: Qatar (QA), Vientiane (LA), Djibouti
+ (DJ), Niger (NE), Central African Republic (CF), Mauretania (MF),
+ Oman (OM), Norfolk Island (NF), Tuvalu (TV), French Polynesia (PF),
+ Syria (SY), Aruba (AW), Cambodia (KH), French Guiana (GF), Eritrea
+ (ER), Cape Verde (CV), Burundi (BI), Benin (BJ) Bosnia-Hercegovina
+ (BA), Andorra (AD), Guadeloupe (GP), Guernsey (GG), Isle of Man
+ (IM), Jersey (JE), Lao (LA), Maldives (MV), Marshall Islands (MH),
+ Mauritania (MR), Northern Mariana Islands (MP), Rwanda (RW), Togo
+ (TG), Yemen (YE), Zaire (ZR)
+
+ Technologies of the Year: Search engines, JAVA, Internet Phone
+ Emerging Technologies: Virtual environments (VRML), Collaborative
+ tools, Internet appliance (Network Computer)
+
+1997
+ 2000th RFC: "Internet Official Protocol Standards"
+
+ 71,618 mailing lists registered at Liszt, a mailing list directory
+
+ The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to
+ handle administration and registration of IP numbers to the
+ geographical areas currently handled by Network Solutions
+ (InterNIC), starting March 1998.
+
+ Early in the morning of 17 July, human error at Network Solutions
+ causes the DNS table for .com and .net domains to become corrupted,
+ making millions of systems unreachable.
+
+ Longest hostname registered with InterNIC:
+ CHALLENGER.MED.SYNAPSE.UAH.UALBERTA.CA
+
+ 101,803 Name Servers in whois database
+
+ CERT advisories thus far: 23
+
+ Country domains registered: Falkland Islands (FK), East Timor (TP),
+ Congo (CG), Christmas Island (CX), Gambia (GM), Guinea-Bissau (GW),
+ Haiti (HT), Iraq (IQ), Lybia (LY), Malawi (MW), Martinique (MQ),
+ Montserrat (MS), Myanmar (MM), French Reunion Island (RE),
+ Seychelles (SC), Sierra Leone (SL), Sudan (SD), Turkmenistan (TM),
+ Turks and Caicos Islands (TC), British Virgin Islands (VG)
+
+ Technologies of the Year: Push, Multicasting Emerging Technologies:
+ Push, Streaming Media [:twc:]
+
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 16]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ Growth
+
+Internet growth:
+
+ Date Hosts | Date Hosts Networks Domains
+ ----- --------- + ----- --------- -------- ---------
+ 1969 4 | 07/89 130,000 650 3,900
+ 04/71 23 | 10/89 159,000 837
+ 06/74 62 | 10/90 313,000 2,063 9,300
+ 03/77 111 | 01/91 376,000 2,338
+ 08/81 213 | 07/91 535,000 3,086 16,000
+ 05/82 235 | 10/91 617,000 3,556 18,000
+ 08/83 562 | 01/92 727,000 4,526
+ 10/84 1,024 | 04/92 890,000 5,291 20,000
+ 10/85 1,961 | 07/92 992,000 6,569 16,300
+ 02/86 2,308 | 10/92 1,136,000 7,505 18,100
+ 11/86 5,089 | 01/93 1,313,000 8,258 21,000
+ 12/87 28,174 | 04/93 1,486,000 9,722 22,000
+ 07/88 33,000 | 07/93 1,776,000 13,767 26,000
+ 10/88 56,000 | 10/93 2,056,000 16,533 28,000
+ 01/89 80,000 | 01/94 2,217,000 20,539 30,000
+ | 07/94 3,212,000 25,210 46,000
+ | 10/94 3,864,000 37,022 56,000
+ | 01/95 4,852,000 39,410 71,000
+ | 07/95 6,642,000 61,538 120,000
+ | 01/96 9,472,000 93,671 240,000
+ | 07/96 12,881,000 134,365 488,000
+ | 01/97 16,146,000 828,000
+ | 07/97 19,540,000 1,301,000
+
+
+Worldwide Networks Growth: (I)nternet (B)ITNET (U)UCP (F)IDONET (O)SI
+
+ ____# Countries____ ____# Countries____
+ Date I B U F O Date I B U F O
+ ----- --- --- --- --- --- ----- --- --- --- --- ---
+ 09/91 31 47 79 49 02/94 62 51 125 88 31
+ 12/91 33 46 78 53 07/94 75 52 129 89 31
+ 02/92 38 46 92 63 11/94 81 51 133 95 --
+ 04/92 40 47 90 66 25 02/95 86 48 141 98 --
+ 08/92 49 46 89 67 26 06/95 96 47 144 99 --
+ 01/93 50 50 101 72 31 06/96 134 -- 146 108 --
+ 04/93 56 51 107 79 31 07/97 171 -- 147 108 --
+ 08/93 59 51 117 84 31
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 17]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+WWW Growth:
+
+ Date Sites | Date Sites | Date Sites
+ ----- ---------- + ----- ---------- + ----- ----------
+ 06/93 130 | 08/96 342,081 | 04/97 1,002,612
+ 12/93 623 | 09/96 397,281 | 05/97 1,044,163
+ 06/94 2,738 | 10/96 462,047 | 06/97 1,117,255
+ 12/94 10,022 | 11/96 525,906 | 07/97 1,203,096
+ 06/95 23,500 | 12/96 603,367 | 08/97 1,269,800
+ 01/96 100,000 | 01/97 646,162 | 09/97 1,364,714
+ 06/96 252,000 | 02/97 739,688 |
+ 07/96 299,403 | 03/97 883,149 |
+
+
+USENET Growth:
+
+Date Sites ~MB ~Posts Groups | Date Sites ~MB ~Posts Groups
+---- ----- --- ------ ------ + ---- ------- --- ------ ------
+1979 3 2 3 | 1987 5,200 2 957 259
+1980 15 10 | 1988 7,800 4 1933 381
+1981 150 0.05 20 | 1990 33,000 10 4,500 1,300
+1982 400 35 | 1991 40,000 25 10,000 1,851
+1983 600 120 | 1992 63,000 42 17,556 4,302
+1984 900 225 | 1993 110,000 70 32,325 8,279
+1985 1,300 1.0 375 | 1994 180,000 157 72,755 10,696
+1986 2,200 2.0 946 241 | 1995 330,000 586 131,614
+
+ ~ approximate: MB - megabytes per day, Posts - articles per day
+
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3. Sources
+
+ Hobbes' Internet Timeline was compiled from a number of sources,
+ with some of the stand-outs being:
+
+ Cerf, Vinton (as told to Bernard Aboba). "How the Internet Came to
+ Be." This article appears in "The Online User's Encyclopedia," by
+ Bernard Aboba. Addison-Wesley, 1993.
+
+ Hardy, Henry. "The History of the Net." Master's Thesis, School of
+ Communications, Grand Valley State University.
+ http://www.ocean.ic.net/ftp/doc/nethist.html
+
+ Hardy, Ian. "The Evolution of ARPANET email." History Thesis, UC
+ Berkeley.
+ http://server.berkeley.edu/virtual-berkeley/email_history
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 18]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+ Hauben, Ronda and Michael. "The Netizens and the Wonderful World of
+ the Net."
+ http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
+
+ Kulikowski, Stan II. "A Timeline of Network History." (author's
+ email below)
+
+ Quarterman, John. "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing
+ Systems Worldwide." Bedford, MA: Digital Press. 1990
+
+ "ARPANET, the Defense Data Network, and Internet". Encyclopedia of
+ Communications, Volume 1. Editors: Fritz Froehlich, Allen Kent.
+ New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. 1991
+
+ Internet growth summary compiled from:
+ - zone program reports maintained by Mark Lottor at:
+ ftp://ftp.nw.com/pub/zone/
+ - connectivity table maintained by Larry Landweber at:
+ ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/connectivity_table/
+
+ WWW growth summary compiled from:
+ - Web growth summary page by Matthew Gray of MIT:
+ http://www.mit.edu/people/mkgray/net/web-growth-summary.html
+ - Netcraft at http://www.netcraft.com/survey/
+
+ USENET growth summary compiled from Quarterman and Hauben sources
+ above, and news.lists postings. Lots of historical USENET postings
+ also provided by Tom Fitzgerald (fitz@wang.com).
+
+ Related Timelines:
+ - DNS: http://www.wia.org/dns-law/pub/timeline.html"
+ - JAVA: http://java.sun.com/events/jibe/timeline.html
+ - BBN: http://www.bbn.com/timeline/
+
+ Additional books of interest:
+ - "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet"
+ Katie Hafner & Matthew Lyon
+ - "Architects of the Web: 1,000 Days That Built the Future of
+ Business", Robert H. Reid
+ - "Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the
+ Internet", Michael Hauben et al
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 19]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+4. Acknowledgements
+
+ Contributors to Hobbes' Internet Timeline have their initials next
+ to the contributed items in the form (:zzz:) and are:
+
+ ad1 - Arnaud Dufour (arnaud.dufour@hec.unil.ch)
+ amk - Alex McKenzie (mckenzie@bbn.com)
+ dk1 - Daniel Karrenberg (Daniel.Karrenberg@ripe.net)
+ ec1 - Eric Carroll (eric@enfm.utcc.utoronto.ca)
+ esr - Eric S. Raymond (esr@locke.ccil.org)
+ feg - Farrell E. Gerbode (farrell@is.rice.edu)
+ gck - Gary C. Kessler (kumquat@hill.com)
+ glg - Gail L. Grant (grant@glgc.com)
+ gmc - Grant McCall (g.mccall@unsw.edu.au)
+ gst - Graham Thomas (G.S.Thomas@uel.ac.uk)
+ irh - Ian R Hardy (hardy@uclink2.berkeley.edu)
+ jap - Jean Armour Polly (mom@netmom.com)
+ jg1 - Jim Gaynor (gaynor@agvax.ag.ohio.state.edu)
+ kf1 - Ken Fockler (fockler@hq.canet.ca)
+ lhl - Larry H. Landweber (lhl@cs.wisc.edu)
+ mpc - Mellisa P. Chase (pc@mitre.org)
+ pb1 - Paul Burchard (burchard@cs.princeton.edu)
+ pds - Peter da Silva (peter@baileynm.com)
+ ph1 - Peter Hoffman (hoffman@ece.nps.navy.mil)
+ rab - Roger A. Bielefeld (rab@hal.cwru.edu)
+ sc1 - Susan Calcari (susanc@is.internic.net)
+ sk2 - Stan Kulikowski (stankuli@uwf.bitnet) - see sources section
+ sw1 - Stephen Wolff (swolff@cisco.com)
+ tp1 - Tim Pozar (pozar@kumr.lns.com)
+ twc - Thomas W. Creedon - K'o Wei Li (tcreedon@mitre.org)
+ vgc - Vinton Cerf (vcerf@isoc.org) - see sources section
+ wz1 - W. Zorn (zorn@ira.uka.de)
+ zby - Zenel Batagelj (zenel.batagelj@uni-lj.si)
+
+5. Security Considerations
+
+ Security issues are not discussed in this document, though
+ references are made to security events which have taken place.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Zakon Informational [Page 20]
+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+6. Author's Address
+
+ Robert H. Zakon
+ Internet Evangelist
+ The MITRE Corporation
+ 1820 Dolley Madison Blvd
+ McLean, Virginia, USA 22102
+
+ Phone: (703) 883-7790
+ EMail: zakon@info.isoc.org
+
+7. Disclaimer
+
+ The views expressed in this document are the author's and are not
+ intended to represent in any way The MITRE Corporation or its
+ opinions on this subject matter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
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+
+
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+
+RFC 2235 Hobbes' Internet Timeline November 1997
+
+
+8. Full Copyright Statement
+
+ Copyright (C) Robert H. Zakon and The Internet Society (1997).
+ All Rights Reserved.
+
+ This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
+ others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
+ or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published and
+ distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
+ provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
+ included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
+ document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
+ the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
+ Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
+ developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
+ copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
+ followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
+ English.
+
+ The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
+ revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
+
+ This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
+ "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
+ TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
+ BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
+ HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+ MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+
+
+
+
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