- Special Edition Using Visual Basic Script -

Appendix A - History of the Internet

Rather than plow into a long, boring dissertation on dates (it all started in 1969) and names (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency started it all, and it's been know as, and comprised of, DARPANET, ARPANET, MILNET, NSFNET, and Merit at one time or another), let's take a look at what the Internet was, is, and will become.

When it all began, the idea was simple: create a very fault-tolerant network of military computers. By completely decentralizing administration and control, and by providing automatic routing over multiple paths, the system would be able to withstand everything from minor localized outages all the way up to nuclear war.

From that humble beginning (there were initially only a handful of large computers "on the Net"), today we have a massive network-of-networks, growing at such a phenomenal rate that providing any usage figures would be meaningless by the time you read this book.

Originally, the network was used to transfer data from one large facility to others. Personal computers would not be available for a decade, and widespread usage would take even longer. The Internet was the playground of the lucky few, and the elite. Mere mortals need not apply.

Those of us on "the outside" would occasionally see tantalizing glimmers of it in magazine articles, or hear words like "UseNet" and "e-mail" from friends with accounts on large university mainframes. However, getting "on the Net" was simply not possible for most of us.

One of the first avenues of Net access for non-insiders was a system called "The Cleveland Free-Net," which was created by CWRU (Case Western Reserve University) using Freeport software that they developed. Within a few years, numerous "Free-Nets" appeared all over the country, providing local residents basic access to the Internet. They could use e-mail, browse Gophers, access UseNet newsgroups, local community news and events, and more.

Other providers also began offering Internet access, but by and large users faced an intimidating obstacle: however nifty the concept was, it never got far from its UNIX roots. Users worked with character-based shells that ran over the UNIX operating system. This meant no graphics, no buttons to click, scrollbars to slide, boxes to check, or menus to pull down. Creating e-mail required use of a UNIX text editor and complex commands. In short, it was not for the faint of heart.

For this type of access, users dialed up with a terminal program, and whatever Internet host they dialed behaved like a sort of super-BBS system. As great as it all was, there were sufficient built-in limitations to restrict it to the few brave souls who were willing to put up with the difficulties.

Two things brought us where we are today: the Winsock API and the WWW. Winsock is a protocol stack that provides a layer that creates a link between Internet applications and the Internet itself. Before the creation of Winsock, there were a few approaches to TCP/IP access on PCs, but they were difficult to use, and installation and setup was tantamount to a black art. Winsock provided a consistent platform that developers could write for, and write they did.

Applications like Telnet, FTP, Finger, e-mail, IRC and talk programs, newsreaders, and so forth were quickly made available for free download at FTP sites all over the world. These programs, when run over a Winsock link, made each user's computer a station on the Internet, just like any other site. Suddenly, dial-up UNIX hosts became functionally obsolete; users could send e-mail by clicking a button and typing in a convenient Windows text box, rather than learn a crude remote UNIX editor. They could browse newsgroups while downloading files, and receive e-mail at the same time. (Winsock allows multitasking, in effect, giving each running application its own virtual modem.)

About this time (the early '90s), the WWW started taking off. Applications like Mosaic created the capability to "browse the Web" and see a mix of text and graphics, all tied together with hypertext style links. This created the current wave of interest in the Internet, and the demand for access spurred numerous small companies to start provider services.

You Are Here

At this point in the rapidly developing history of the Internet, the "big boys" are getting into the ISP (Internet Service Provider) game. Everyone from CompuServe to telephone companies to cable TV operators are becoming ISPs. Internet access is rapidly becoming a commodity, and nearly everyone is within a local call of a dial-up modem pool at a reasonable price.

Today, access is ubiquitous. The Internet is no longer the exclusive province of the propeller-beanie and pocket-liner crowd. The next wave will not be one of access, but of content. For all its popularity, the WWW is essentially a one-way, static medium. It's sort of like television for computers. Now, with tools like VBScript, Web pages can easily be provided active content. The personal communications systems that have been predicted for years may very well arrive on the scene as little-more than wireless browsers of an active-content-rich WWW.

Learning the concepts presented in this book will place you in the right place at the right time to position yourself to capitalize on the next major growth stage of the Internet. It's a good time to know Visual Basic.