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networking > history of networking

go to history of data communications | history of the internet

History of Networking

Let's look at 'networking' in a broader context before we get down to examining the history of computer networking. In the scheme of things computer networking is a fairly recent blip on the human time line - having only really started about 60 years ago. The World Wide Web, which is perhaps today's most popular network, was only invented in 1989.

Let's take a look at the word itself - network. The following definitions shed light on the concept of networking.

1. An openwork fabric or structure in which cords, threads, or wires cross at regular intervals.
2. Something that resembles an openwork fabric or structure in form or concept:
   1. A system of lines or channels that cross or interconnect:
      eg a network of railroads.
   2. A complex, interconnected group or system:
      eg. a spy network.
   3. An extended group of people with similar interests or concerns who interact and remain in informal contact for mutual assistance or support.
   4. A group or system of electric components and connecting circuitry designed to function in a specific manner.
      eg. telephone network
   5. Computer Science. A system of computers interconnected by telephone wires or other means in order to share information.

It is the final definition which is our real interest here. A system of computers interconnected by telephone wires or other means in order to share information. The 'other means' now includes satellites, fibre optic cable and a range of wireless technologies including microwave and radio frequencies. The common point is that computer networking is about connecting machines to share, process and store data and resources.

Computer Networking is specifically defined in The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.

Hardware and software data communication systems.

The OSI seven layer model attempts to provide a way of partitioning any computer network into independent modules from the lowest (physical) layer to the highest (application) layer. Many different specifications exist at each of these layers.

Networks are often also classified according to their geographical extent: local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), wide area network (WAN) and also according to the protocols used.

[Tanenbaum, A., "Computer Networks; 2nd ed.", Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.]

Links: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2003 Denis Howe
- http://www.foldoc.org/
- http://foldoc.hld.c64.org/ (australian mirror)
- http://www.InstantWeb.com/foldoc/ (us mirror with a nice interface)

Computer networking can't happen without computers. A brief look at the history of computers provides some context for the moment in time in which we're really interested.

Computers have evolved over thousands of years out of humanity's need to make calculations and automate tedious tasks. The Abacus, Babbage's difference engine, Colussus and Eniac are all early computers, but not quite like the computers we now use daily. One of the very first computers that was able to store programs was designed here in Australia by Trevor Pearcey. It was called CSIRAC and it is the only first-generation computer still in existence. It was developed in 1949 and was operational until 1964. It is now owned by the Melbourne Museum and is due to go on display in 2004.

More information on CSIRAC can be found at
http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/.../techinfo.asp
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/pubs/guides/csirac/

It was the 11th of September 1940 that the first computers were networked. Really they were more like calculators and they were connected via teletype. George Stibitz had developed the Complex Number Calculator a couple of years prior to this. But one of the main reasons for making the connection was to show that it was possible.

"This is now generally considered the world's first example of remote job entry, a technique that would revolutionize dissemination of information through telephone and computer networks."
- http://www2.fht-esslingen.de/.../stibitz.html
- http://www.union.edu/N/DS/s.php?s=2768

During WWII a computer named Colossus was developed by the British at Bletchley park to crack the encrypted messages of the Germans - however the codes used by the German military to make their communications secret weren't computerised, they were created by a mechanical machine called the enigma.

Colossus links
http://www.picotech.com/applications/colossus.html
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/index.htm

The end of WWII was the beginning of the cold war and the space race. It was a good time for technology and computing because the vast resources of the World's super powers, the USSR and the USA were funneled into technological research. This research ultimately lead to putting people in space, and started an information revolution now called the internet. A network of networks, the internet was designed to be bomb proof, to route around damage and keep working despite whatever catastrophe might occur.

1969 was a big year. Whilst the russians won the race to put a human being in space, it was the americans who put one on the moon. It was also the americans that developed what was to become the internet.

It all started with two letters being transmitted from one computer to another on 29 October 1969. The scene was played out in a laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Professor Leonard Kleinrock told his research assistant, Charley Kline to speak to a colleague at Stanford University in San Francisco.

"All we wanted to do was (type the words) 'log in,' " recalls Kleinrock, whose groundbreaking research in network data-packet switching led to the historic moment. Kline typed the "L." Stanford acknowledged that the letter had been received. Kline typed the "O." Also received. Kline typed the "G." The system crashed. The first message sent across the Net turned out to be quite appropriate -- either the biblical word "lo" or, phonetically, a version of "hello," Kleinrock says.
- https://www.business2.com/.../0,1640,13175,00.html
- http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Internet.History.1.html

They succesfully completed the experiment an hour later after getting the system operational again. And the rest as they say is history.

Australian computing history...
http://www.terrigal.net.au/~acms/timeline.htm
http://www.anu.edu.au/.../OzIHist.html

Other links
http://www.bobbemer.com/CONCEPTS.HTM
Colossus Rebuild - Tony Sale
 http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/rebuild.htm

more history of data communications | of the internet

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