In 1969: People in colleges and governments were just learning how to use computers to solve problems. But even though they used simple word processors to write down what they learned, there were no daily updated libraries where other people could get information on what others had written and made suggestions about. So a U.S. Government Agency called Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) came up with the idea of a network whereby several computer could be linked by wires so they could communicate with other computers. The network was named DARPANET. This idea was well accepted and soon the name changed to ARPANET.

 

In 1983: As more computers kept on adding to and growing the network, a reach group from the U.S. military decided they wanted their own private Network which was created and called MILNET Network.

 

In 1984: The National Science Foundation, started a network called NSFNET Network, which linked together five supercomputers and made the information available to any school that needed it. The ARPANET was supposed to have done this already but did not. On the NSFNET Network, everyone who entered the Network was connected to at lest one of the supercomputers centers which gave them access to all the other computers on the network- even to those places that were hooked into the network through another gateway. The NSFNET Network became very popular. More computer and more wires had to be added because everyone in schools and government wanted to get onto the network. The way it grew was that instead of just adding more computers into the first network of supercomputers, they added more networks of computers and wired those networks together. They called it an Inter-Net-Network.

 

Now that millions of people around the world have computer at home, the InterNet is growing even more popular. In the last 12 years it has grown from about 5,000 users to more that 80 million today and it continues to grow by 1 million new users each day.