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(See the Legal Provisions document at https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info for more information.) -- Couldn't find a document date in the document -- date freshness check skipped. -- Found something which looks like a code comment -- if you have code sections in the document, please surround them with '' and '' lines. Checking references for intended status: Proposed Standard ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (See RFCs 3967 and 4897 for information about using normative references to lower-maturity documents in RFCs) No issues found here. Summary: 10 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 2 warnings (==), 3 comments (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 INTERNET DRAFT EXPIRES FEB 1998 INTERNET DRAFT 2 Network Working Group R. Zakon 3 Internet Draft MITRE 5 Hobbes' Internet Timeline 6 8 Status of This Memo 10 This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working 11 documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its 12 areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also 13 distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. 15 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six 16 months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other 17 documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- 18 Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as 19 "work in progress." 21 To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check 22 the "1id-abstracts.txt" listing contained in the Internet- 23 Drafts Shadow Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa), 24 nic.nordu.net (Europe), munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim), 25 ds.internic.net (US East Coast), or ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast). 27 Distribution of this document is unlimited. 29 1. Status of this Memo 31 This memo provides information for the Internet community. This 32 memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. 33 Distribution of this memo is unlimited. 35 2. Introduction 37 This document presents a history of the Internet in timeline 38 fashion, highlighting some of the key events and technologies which 39 helped shape the Internet as we know it today. A growth summary 40 of the Internet and some associated technologies is also included. 42 3. Hobbes' Internet Timeline 44 Excerpted from the author's work of the same name. The most 45 current version of Hobbes' Internet Timeline is available at 46 http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html 48 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 50 1950s 52 1957 53 USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite. In 54 response, US forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) 55 within the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in 56 science and technology applicable to the military (:amk:) 58 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 60 1960s 62 1962 63 Paul Baran, RAND: "On Distributed Communications Networks" 64 o Packet-switching (PS) networks; no single outage point 66 1965 67 ARPA sponsors study on "cooperative network of time-sharing 68 computers" 69 o TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and Q-32 at System Development 70 Corporation (Santa Monica, CA) are directly linked 71 (without packet switches) 72 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 74 1967 ACM Symposium on Operating Principles 75 o Plan presented for a packet-switching network 76 o First design paper on ARPANET published by Lawrence G. 77 Roberts 79 National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England develops 80 NPL Data Network under D. W. Davies 82 1968 83 PS-network presented to the Advanced Research Projects Agency 84 (ARPA) 86 1969 87 ARPANET commissioned by DoD for research into networking 88 - First node at UCLA [Network Measurements Center - SDS SIGMA 89 7:SEX] and soon after at: [legend = function - system:os] 90 - Stanford Research Institute (SRI) [NIC - 91 SDS940/Genie] 92 - UCSB [Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics - 93 IBM 360/75:OS/MVT] 94 - U of Utah [Graphics (hidden line removal) - 95 DEC PDP-10:Tenex] 96 - use of Information Message Processors (IMP) [Honeywell 516 97 mini computer with 12K of memory] developed by Bolt Beranek 98 and Newman, Inc. (BBN) 100 First Request for Comment (RFC): "Host Software" by Steve Crocker 102 U of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State U establish 103 X.25-based Merit network for students, faculty, alumni (:sw1:) 104 o Plan presented for a packet-switching network 105 o First design paper on ARPANET published by Lawrence G. Roberts 107 National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England develops 108 NPL Data Network under D. W. Davies 110 1968 111 PS-network presented to the Advanced Research Projects Agency 112 (ARPA) 114 1969 115 ARPANET commissioned by DoD for research into networking 116 - First node at UCLA [Network Measurements Center - SDS SIGMA 117 7:SEX] and soon after at: [legend = function - system:os] 118 - Stanford Research Institute (SRI) [NIC - 119 SDS940/Genie] 120 - UCSB [Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics - 121 IBM 360/75:OS/MVT] 122 - U of Utah [Graphics (hidden line removal) - 123 DEC PDP-10:Tenex] 124 - use of Information Message Processors (IMP) [Honeywell 516 125 mini computer with 12K of memory] developed by Bolt Beranek 126 and Newman, Inc. (BBN) 128 First Request for Comment (RFC): "Host Software" by Steve Crocker 130 U of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State U establish 131 X.25-based Merit network for students, faculty, alumni (:sw1:) 133 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 135 1970s 137 Store-and-forward networks 138 - Used electronic mail technology and extended it to conferencing 140 1970 141 ALOHAnet developed by Norman Abrahamson, U of Hawaii (:sk2:) 142 - connected to the ARPANET in 1972 144 ARPANET hosts start using Network Control Protocol (NCP). 146 1971 147 15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, U of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, 148 SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames 150 Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents email program to send messages across 151 a distributed network. The original program was derived from two 152 others: an intra-machine email program (SNDMSG) and an experimental 153 file transfer program (CPYNET) (:amk:irh:) 154 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 156 1972 157 International Conference on Computer Communications with 158 demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines and the Terminal 159 Interface Processor (TIP) organized by Bob Kahn. 161 InterNetworking Working Group (INWG) created to address need for 162 establishing agreed upon protocols. Chairman: Vinton Cerf. 164 Telnet specification (RFC 318) 166 1973 167 First international connections to the ARPANET: University College 168 of London (England) and Royal Radar Establishment (Norway) 170 Bob Metcalfe's Harvard PhD Thesis outlines idea for Ethernet(:amk:) 172 Bob Kahn poses Internet problem, starts internetting research 173 program at ARPA. Vinton Cerf sketches gateway architecture in March 174 on back of envelope in hotel lobby in San Francisco (:vgc:) 176 Cerf and Kahn present basic Internet ideas at INWG in September at 177 U of Sussex, Brighton, UK (:vgc:) 179 File Transfer specification (RFC 454) 181 1974 182 Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network 183 Intercommunication" which specified in detail the design of a 184 Transmission Control Program (TCP). [IEEE Trans Comm] (:amk:) 186 BBN opens Telenet, the first public packet data service (a 187 commercial version of ARPANET) (:sk2:) 189 1975 190 Operational management of Internet transferred to DCA (now DISA) 192 "Jargon File", by Raphael Finkel at SAIL, first released (:esr:) 194 Shockwave Rider written by John Brunner (:pds:) 196 1976 197 Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom sends out an e-mail 198 (various Net folks have e-mailed dates ranging from 1971 to 1978; 199 1976 was the most submitted and the only found in print) 201 UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs and 202 distributed with UNIX one year later. 204 1977 205 THEORYNET created by Larry Landweber at U of Wisconsin providing 206 electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using 207 a locally developed email system and TELENET for access to server). 209 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 211 Mail specification (RFC 733) 213 Tymshare launches Tymnet 215 First demonstration of ARPANET/Packet Radio Net/SATNET operation of 216 Internet protocols with BBN-supplied gateways in July (:vgc:) 218 1979 219 Meeting between U of Wisconsin, DARPA, NSF, and computer scientists 220 from many universities to establish a Computer Science Department 221 research computer network (organized by Larry Landweber). 223 USENET established using UUCP between Duke and UNC by Tom Truscott, 224 Jim Ellis, and Steve Bellovin. All original groups were under net.* 225 hierarchy. 227 First MUD, MUD1, by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw at U of Essex 229 ARPA establishes the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB) 231 Packet Radio Network (PRNET) experiment starts with DARPA funding. 232 Most communications take place between mobile vans. ARPANET 233 connection via SRI. 235 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 237 1980s 239 1981 240 BITNET, the "Because It's Time NETwork" 241 - Started as a cooperative network at the City University of New 242 York, with the first connection to Yale (:feg:) 243 - Original acronym stood for 'There' instead of 'Time' in 244 reference to the free NJE protocols provided with the IBM 245 systems 246 - Provides electronic mail and listserv servers to distribute 247 information, as well as file transfers 249 CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) built by a collaboration of 250 computer scientists and U. of Delaware, Purdue U., U. of Wisconsin, 251 RAND Corporation and BBN through seed money granted by NSF to 252 provide networking services (specially email) to university 253 scientists with no access to ARPANET. CSNET later becomes known as 254 the Computer and Science Network. (:amk,lhl:) 256 Minitel (Teletel) is deployed across France by France Telecom. 258 True Names written by Vernor Vinge (:pds:) 259 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 261 1982 262 DCA and ARPA establishes the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) 263 and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known 264 as TCP/IP, for ARPANET. (:vgc:) 265 - This leads to one of the first definitions of an "internet" as 266 a connected set of networks, specifically those using TCP/IP, 267 and "Internet" as connected TCP/IP internets. 268 - DoD declares TCP/IP suite to be standard for DoD (:vgc:) 270 EUnet (European UNIX Network) is created by EUUG to provide email 271 and USENET services. (:glg:) 272 - original connections between the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, 273 and UK 275 External Gateway Protocol (RFC 827) specification. EGP is used for 276 gateways between networks. 278 1983 279 Name server developed at U of Wisconsin, no longer requiring users 280 to know the exact path to other systems. 282 Cutover from NCP to TCP/IP (1 January) 284 CSNET / ARPANET gateway put in place 286 ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET; the latter became integrated 287 with the Defense Data Network created the previous year. 289 Desktop workstations come into being, many with Berkeley UNIX which 290 includes IP networking software. 292 Need switches from having a single, large time sharing computer 293 connected to Internet per site, to connection of an entire local 294 network. 296 Internet Activities Board (IAB) established, replacing ICCB 298 Berkeley releases 4.2BSD incorporating TCP/IP (:mpc:) 300 EARN (European Academic and Research Network) established. Very 301 similar to the way BITNET works with a gateway funded by IBM. 303 FidoNet developed by Tom Jennings. 305 1984 306 Domain Name Server (DNS) introduced. 308 # of hosts breaks 1,000 310 JUNET (Japan Unix Network) established using UUCP. 312 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 314 JANET (Joint Academic Network) established in the UK using the 315 Coloured Book protocols; previously SERCnet. 317 Moderated newsgroups introduced on USENET (mod.*) 319 Neuromancer written by William Gibson 321 1985 322 Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) started 324 100 years to the day of the last spike being driven on the cross- 325 Canada railroad, the last Canadian university is connected to 326 BITNET in a one year effort to have coast-to-coast connectivity. 327 (:kf1:) 329 1986 330 NSFNET created (backbone speed of 56Kbps) 331 - NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide 332 high-computing power for all (JVNC@Princeton, PSC@Pittsburgh, 333 SDSC@UCSD, NCSA@UIUC, Theory Center@Cornell). 334 - This allows an explosion of connections, especially from 335 universities. 337 NSF-funded SDSCNET, JVNCNET, SURANET, and NYSERNET operational 338 (:sw1:) 340 The first Freenet (Cleveland) comes on-line 16 July under the 341 auspices of the Society for Public Access Computing (SoPAC). Later 342 Freenet program management assumed by the National Public 343 Telecomputing Network (NPTN) in 1989 (:sk2,rab:) 345 Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) designed to enhance Usenet 346 news performance over TCP/IP. 348 Mail Exchanger (MX) records developed by Craig Partridge allow non- 349 IP network hosts to have domain addresses. 351 The great USENET name change; moderated newsgroups changed in 1987. 353 BARRNET (Bay Area Regional Research Network) established using high 354 speed links. Operational in 1987. 356 1987 357 NSF signs a cooperative agreement to manage the NSFNET backbone 358 with Merit Network, Inc. (IBM and MCI involvement was through an 359 agreement with Merit). Merit, IBM, and MCI later founded ANS. 361 UUNET is founded with Usenix funds to provide commercial UUCP and 362 Usenet access. Originally an experiment by Rick Adams and Mike 363 O'Dell 364 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 366 Email link established between Germany and China using CSNET 367 protocols, with the first message from China sent on 20 September. 368 (:wz1:) 370 1000th RFC: "Request For Comments reference guide" 372 # of hosts breaks 10,000 374 # of BITNET hosts breaks 1,000 376 1988 377 1 November - Internet worm burrows through the Net, affecting 378 ~6,000 of the 60,000 hosts on the Internet (:ph1:) 380 CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) formed by DARPA in response 381 to the needs exhibited during the Morris worm incident. The worm is 382 the only advisory issued this year. 384 DoD chooses to adopt OSI and sees use of TCP/IP as an interim. US 385 Government OSI Profile (GOSIP) defines the set of protocols to be 386 supported by Government purchased products (:gck:) 388 Los Nettos network created with no federal funding, instead 389 supported by regional members (founding: Caltech, TIS, UCLA, USC, 390 ISI). 392 NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544Mbps) 394 CERFnet (California Education and Research Federation network) 395 founded by Susan Estrada. 397 Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed by Jarkko Oikarinen (:zby:) 399 First Canadian regionals join NSFNET: ONet via Cornell, RISQ via 400 Princeton, BCnet via U of Washington (:ec1:) 402 FidoNet gets connected to the Net, enabling the exchange of e-mail 403 and news (:tp1:) 405 Countries connecting to NSFNET: Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, 406 Iceland, Norway, Sweden 408 1989 409 # of hosts breaks 100,000 411 RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeens) formed (by European service providers) 412 to ensure the necessary administrative and technical coordination 413 to allow the operation of the pan-European IP Network. (:glg:) 415 First relays between a commercial electronic mail carrier and the 416 Internet: MCI Mail through the Corporation for the National 417 Research Initiative (CNRI), and Compuserve through Ohio State U 418 (:jg1,ph1:) 419 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 421 Corporation for Research and Education Networking (CREN) is formed 422 by the merge of CSNET into BITNET 424 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Research Task 425 Force (IRTF) comes into existence under the IAB 427 AARNET - Australian Academic Research Network - set up by AVCC and 428 CSIRO; introduced into service the following year (:gmc:) 430 Cuckoo's Egg written by Clifford Stoll tells the real-life tale of 431 a German cracker group who infiltrated numerous US facilities 433 CERT advisories: 7 435 Countries connecting to NSFNET: Australia, Germany, Israel, Italy, 436 Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, UK 438 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 440 1990s 442 1990 443 ARPANET ceases to exist 445 Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is founded by Mitch Kapor 447 Archie released by Peter Deutsch, Alan Emtage, and Bill Heelan at 448 McGill 450 Hytelnet released by Peter Scott (U of Saskatchewan) 452 The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the first 453 commercial provider of Internet dial-up access 455 ISO Development Environment (ISODE) developed to provide an 456 approach for OSI migration for the DoD. ISODE software allows OSI 457 application to operate over TCP/IP (:gck:) 459 CA*net formed by 10 regional networks as national Canadian backbone 460 with direct connection to NSFNET (:ec1:) 462 The first remotely operated machine to be hooked up to the 463 Internet, the Internet Toaster, (controlled via SNMP) makes its 464 debut at Interop. 466 CERT advisories: 12, reports: 130 468 Countries connecting to NSFNET: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, 469 Brazil, Chile, Greece, India, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, 470 Switzerland 471 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 473 1991 474 Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed by 475 General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance Systems International, Inc. 476 (PSInet), and UUNET Technologies, Inc. (AlterNet), after NSF lifts 477 restrictions on the commercial use of the Net (:glg:) 479 Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), invented by Brewster Kahle, 480 released by Thinking Machines Corporation 482 Gopher released by Paul Lindner and Mark P. McCahill from the U of 483 Minn 485 World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim Berners-Lee developer 486 (:pb1:) 488 PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) released by Philip Zimmerman (:ad1:) 490 US High Performance Computing Act (Gore 1) establishes the National 491 Research and Education Network (NREN) 493 NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps) 495 NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion 496 packets/month 498 Start of JANET IP Service (JIPS) which signalled the changeover 499 from Coloured Book software to TCP/IP within the UK academic 500 network. IP was initially 'tunnelled' within X.25. (:gst:) 502 CERT advisories: 23 504 Countries connecting to NSFNET: Croatia, Czech Repulic, Hong Kong, 505 Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Tunisia 507 1992 508 Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered 510 # of hosts breaks 1,000,000 512 First MBONE audio multicast (March) and video multicast (November) 514 IAB reconstituted as the Internet Architecture Board and becomes 515 part of the Internet Society 517 Veronica, a gopherspace search tool, is released by UofNevada 519 World Bank comes on-line 521 Japan's first ISP, Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), is formed by 522 Koichi Suzuki 523 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 525 The term "Surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly 526 (:jap:) 528 Internet Hunt started by Rick Gates 530 CERT advisories: 21, reports: 800 532 Countries connecting to NSFNET: Cameroon, Cyprus, Ecuador, Estonia, 533 Kuwait, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, 534 Venezuela 536 1993 537 InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet services: 538 (:sc1:) 539 - directory and database services (AT&T) 540 - registration services (Network Solutions Inc.) 541 - information services (General Atomics/CERFnet) 543 US White House comes on-line (http://www.whitehouse.gov/): 544 - President Bill Clinton: president@whitehouse.gov 545 - Vice-President Al Gore: vice-president@whitehouse.gov 546 - First Lady Hillary Clinton: root@whitehouse.gov (-:rhz:-) 548 Worms of a new kind find their way around the Net - WWW Worms (W4), 549 joined by Spiders, Wanderers, Crawlers, and Snakes ... 551 Internet Talk Radio begins broadcasting (:sk2:) 553 United Nations (UN) come on-line (:vgc:) 555 US National Information Infrastructure Act 557 Businesses and media really take notice of the Internet 559 Mosaic takes the Internet by storm; WWW proliferates at a 341,634% 560 annual growth rate of service traffic. Gopher's growth is 997%. 562 CERT advisories: 18, reports: 1300 564 Countries connecting to NSFNET: Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Egypt, Fiji, 565 Ghana, Guam, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Peru, 566 Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, Virgin Islands 568 1994 569 ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary 571 Communities begin to be wired up directly to the Internet 572 (Lexington and Cambridge, Mass., USA) 574 US Senate and House provide information servers 576 Shopping malls arrive on the Internet 577 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 579 First cyberstation, RT-FM, broadcasts from Interop in Las Vegas 581 The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests 582 that GOSIP should incorporate TCP/IP and drop the "OSI-only" 583 requirement (:gck:) 585 Arizona law firm of Canter & Siegel "spams" the Internet with email 586 advertising green card lottery services; Net citizens flame back 588 NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month 590 Yes, it's true - you can now order pizza from the Hut online 592 WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd most popular service on the Net 593 (behind ftp-data) based on % of packets and bytes traffic 594 distribution on NSFNET 596 Japanese Prime Minister on-line 598 UK's HM Treasury on-line 600 New Zealand's Info Tech Prime Minister on-line 602 First Virtual, the first cyberbank, open up for business 604 Radio stations start rockin' (rebroadcasting) round the clock on 605 the Net: WXYC at UofNC, WJHK at UofKS-Lawrence, KUGS at Western 606 Washington U 608 Trans-European Research and Education Network Association (TERENA) 609 is formed by the merge of RARE and EARN, with representatives from 610 38 countries as well as CERN and ECMWF. TERERNA's aim is to 611 "promote and participate in the development of a high quality 612 international information and telecommunications infrastructure for 613 the benefit of research and education" 615 CERT advisories: 15, reports: 2300 617 Countries connecting to NSFNET: Algeria, Armenia, Bermuda, Burkina 618 Faso, China, Colombia, French Polynesia, Jamaica, Lebanon, 619 Lithuania, Macau, Morocco, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, 620 Philippines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Uruguay, Uzbekistan 622 1995 623 NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main US backbone traffic 624 now routed through interconnected network providers 626 The new NSFNET is born as NSF establishes the very high speed 627 Backbone Network Service (vBNS) linking super-computing centers: 628 NCAR, NCSA, SDSC, CTC, PSC 629 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 631 Hong Kong police disconnect all but 1 of the colony's Internet 632 providers in search of a hacker. 10,000 people are left without Net 633 access. (:api:) 635 RealAudio, an audio streaming technology, lets the Net hear in near 636 real-time 638 Radio HK, the first 24 hr., Internet-only radio station starts 639 broadcasting 641 WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as the service with greatest 642 traffic on NSFNet based on packet count, and in April based on byte 643 count 645 Traditional online dial-up systems (Compuserve, America Online, 646 Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access 648 A number of Net related companies go public, with Netscape leading 649 the pack with the 3rd largest ever NASDAQ IPO share value (9 650 August) 652 Thousands in Minneapolis-St. Paul (USA) lose Net access after 653 transients start a bonfire under a bridge at the U of Minn. causing 654 fiber-optic cables to melt (30 July) 656 Registration of domain names is no longer free. Beginning 14 657 September, a $50 annual fee has been imposed, which up until now 658 was subsidized by NSF. NSF continues to pay for .edu registration, 659 and on an interim basis for .gov 661 The Vatican comes on-line 663 The Canadian Government comes on-line 665 The first official Internet wiretap was successful in helping the 666 Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) aprehend three 667 individuals who were illegally manufacturing and selling cell phone 668 cloning equipment and electronic devices 670 Operation Home Front connects, for the first time, soldiers in the 671 field with their families back home via the Internet. 673 Richard White becomes the first person to be declared a munition, 674 under the USA's arms export control laws, because of an RSA file 675 security encryption program emblazoned on his arm (:wired496:) 677 CERT advisories: 18, reports: 2412 678 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 680 Country domains registered: Ethiopia (ET), Cote d'Ivoire (CI), Cook 681 Islands (CK) Cayman Islands (KY), Anguilla (AI), Gibraltar (GI), 682 Vatican (VA), Kiribati (KI), Kyrgyzstan (KG), Madagascar (MG), 683 Mauritius (MU), Micronesia (FM), Monaco (MC), Mongolia (MN), Nepal 684 (NP), Nigeria (NG), Western Samoa (WS), San Marino (SM), Tanzania 685 (TZ), Tonga (TO), Uganda (UG), Vanuatu (VU) 687 Technologies of the Year: WWW, Search engines 688 Emerging Technologies: Mobile code (JAVA, JAVAscript), Virtual 689 environments (VRML), Collaborative tools 691 1996 692 Internet phones catch the attention of US telecommunication 693 companies who ask the US Congress to ban the technology (which has 694 been around for years) 696 The controversial US Communications Decency Act (CDA) becomes law 697 in the US in order to prohibit distribution of indecent materials 698 over the Net. A few months later a three-judge panel imposes an 699 injunction against its enforcement. Supreme Court rules it 700 unconstitutional in 1997. 702 9,272 organizations find themselves unlisted after the InterNIC 703 drops their name service as a result of not having paid their 704 domain name fee 706 Various ISPs suffer extended service outages, bringing into 707 question whether they will be able to handle the growing number of 708 users. AOL (19 hours), Netcom (13 hours), AT&T WorldNet (28 hours - 709 email only) 711 New Yorks' Public Access Networks Corp (PANIX) is shut down after 712 repeated attacks by a cracker using methods outlined in a hacker 713 magazine, 2600 715 Various US Government sites are hacked into and their content 716 changed, including CIA, Department of Justice, Air Force 718 MCI upgrades Internet backbone adding ~13,000 ports, bringing the 719 effective speed from 155Mbps to 622Mbps. 721 The Internet Ad Hoc Committee announces plans to add 7 new generic 722 Top Level Domains (gTLD): .firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info, 723 .nom. The IAHC plan also calls for a competing group of domain 724 registrars worldwide. 726 A cancelbot is released on USENET wiping out more than 25,000 727 messages. 729 The WWW browser war, fought primarily between Netscape and 730 Microsoft, has rushed in a new age in software development, whereby 731 new releases are made quarterly with the help of Internet users 732 eager to test upcoming (beta) versions. 734 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 736 Restrictions on Internet use around the world: 737 - China: requires users and ISPs to register with the police 738 - Germany: cuts off access to some newsgroups carried on 739 Compuserve 740 - Saudi Arabia: confines Internet access to universities and 741 hospitals 742 - Singapore: requires political and religious content providers 743 to register with the state 744 - New Zealand: classifies computer disks as "publications" that 745 can be censored and seized 746 - source: Human Rights Watch 748 vBNS additions: Baylor College of Medicine, Georgia Tech, Iowa 749 State U, Ohio State U, Old Dominion U, UoCA, UoCO, UoChicago, UoIL, 750 UoMN, UoPA, UoTX, Rice U 752 CERT advisories: 27, reports: 2573 754 Country domains registered: Qatar (QA), Vientiane (LA), Djibouti 755 (DJ), Niger (NE), Central African Republic (CF), Mauretania (MF), 756 Oman (OM), Norfolk Island (NF), Tuvalu (TV), French Polynesia (PF), 757 Syria (SY), Aruba (AW), Cambodia (KH), French Guiana (GF), Eritrea 758 (ER), Cape Verde (CV), Burundi (BI), Benin (BJ) Bosnia-Hercegovina 759 (BA), Andorra (AD), Guadeloupe (GP), Guernsey (GG), Isle of Man 760 (IM), Jersey (JE), Lao (LA), Maldives (MV), Marshall Islands (MH), 761 Mauritania (MR), Northern Mariana Islands (MP), Rwanda (RW), Togo 762 (TG), Yemen (YE), Zaire (ZR) 764 Technologies of the Year: Search engines, JAVA, Internet Phone 765 Emerging Technologies: Virtual environments (VRML), Collaborative 766 tools, Internet appliance (Network Computer) 768 1997 769 2000th RFC: "Internet Official Protocol Standards" 771 71,618 mailing lists registered at Liszt 773 The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to 774 handle administration and registration of IP numbers to the 775 geographical areas currently handled by Network Solutions 776 (InterNIC), starting March 1998. 778 CERT advisories thus far: 18 780 Country domains registered: Falkland Islands (FK), East Timor (TP), 781 Congo (CG), Christmas Island (CX), Gambia (GM), Guinea-Bissau (GW), 782 Haiti (HT), Iraq (IQ), Lybia (LY), Malawi (MW), Martinique (MQ), 783 Montserrat (MS), Myanmar (MM), French Reunion Island (RE), 784 Seychelles (SC), Sierra Leone (SL), Sudan (SD), Turkmenistan (TM), 785 Turks and Caicos Islands (TC) 787 Emerging Technologies: Push, Streaming Media [:twc:] 788 Technologies of the Year: Push, Multicasting 790 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 791 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 793 Growth 795 Internet growth: 797 Date Hosts | Date Hosts Networks Domains 798 ----- --------- + ----- --------- -------- ------- 799 1969 4 | 07/89 130,000 650 3,900 800 04/71 23 | 10/89 159,000 837 801 06/74 62 | 10/90 313,000 2,063 9,300 802 03/77 111 | 01/91 376,000 2,338 803 08/81 213 | 07/91 535,000 3,086 16,000 804 05/82 235 | 10/91 617,000 3,556 18,000 805 08/83 562 | 01/92 727,000 4,526 806 10/84 1,024 | 04/92 890,000 5,291 20,000 807 10/85 1,961 | 07/92 992,000 6,569 16,300 808 02/86 2,308 | 10/92 1,136,000 7,505 18,100 809 11/86 5,089 | 01/93 1,313,000 8,258 21,000 810 12/87 28,174 | 04/93 1,486,000 9,722 22,000 811 07/88 33,000 | 07/93 1,776,000 13,767 26,000 812 10/88 56,000 | 10/93 2,056,000 16,533 28,000 813 01/89 80,000 | 01/94 2,217,000 20,539 30,000 814 | 07/94 3,212,000 25,210 46,000 815 | 10/94 3,864,000 37,022 56,000 816 | 01/95 4,852,000 39,410 71,000 817 | 07/95 6,642,000 61,538 120,000 818 | 01/96 9,472,000 93,671 240,000 819 | 07/96 12,881,000 134,365 488,000 820 | 01/97 16,146,000 828,000 821 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 823 Worldwide Networks Growth: (I)nternet (B)ITNET (U)UCP (F)IDONET (O)SI 825 ____# Countries____ ____# Countries____ 826 Date I B U F O Date I B U F O 827 ----- --- --- --- --- --- ----- --- --- --- --- --- 828 09/91 31 47 79 49 02/94 62 51 125 88 31 829 12/91 33 46 78 53 07/94 75 52 129 89 31 830 02/92 38 46 92 63 11/94 81 51 133 95 -- 831 04/92 40 47 90 66 25 02/95 86 48 141 98 -- 832 08/92 49 46 89 67 26 06/95 96 47 144 99 -- 833 01/93 50 50 101 72 31 06/96 134 -- 146 108 -- 834 04/93 56 51 107 79 31 07/97 171 -- 147 108 -- 835 08/93 59 51 117 84 31 837 WWW Growth: 839 Date Sites | Date Sites | Date Sites 840 ----- ---------- + ----- ---------- + ----- ---------- 841 06/93 130 | 08/96 342,081 | 04/97 1,002,612 842 12/93 623 | 09/96 397,281 | 05/97 1,044,163 843 06/94 2,738 | 10/96 462,047 | 06/97 1,117,255 844 12/94 10,022 | 11/96 525,906 | 07/97 1,203,096 845 06/95 23,500 | 12/96 603,367 | 08/98 1,269,800 846 01/96 100,000 | 01/97 646,162 | 847 06/96 252,000 | 02/97 739,688 | 848 07/96 299,403 | 03/97 883,149 | 850 USENET Growth: 852 Date Sites ~MB ~Posts Groups | Date Sites ~MB ~Posts Groups 853 ---- ----- --- ------ ------ + ---- ------- --- ------ ------ 854 1979 3 2 3 | 1987 5,200 2 957 259 855 1980 15 10 | 1988 7,800 4 1933 381 856 1981 150 .05 20 | 1990 33,000 10 4,500 1,300 857 1982 400 35 | 1991 40,000 25 10,000 1,851 858 1983 600 120 | 1992 63,000 42 17,556 4,302 859 1984 900 225 | 1993 110,000 70 32,325 8,279 860 1985 1,300 1.0 375 | 1994 180,000 157 72,755 10,696 861 1986 2,200 2.0 946 241 | 1995 330,000 586 131,614 863 ~ approximate: MB - megabytes per day, Posts - articles per day 865 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 866 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 868 4. Sources 870 Hobbes' Internet Timeline was compiled from a number of sources, 871 with some of the stand-outs being: 873 Cerf, Vinton (as told to Bernard Aboba). "How the Internet Came to 874 Be." This article appears in "The Online User's Encyclopedia," by 875 Bernard Aboba. Addison-Wesley, 1993. 877 Hardy, Henry. "The History of the Net." Master's Thesis, School of 878 Communications, Grand Valley State University. 879 http://www.ocean.ic.net/ftp/doc/nethist.html 881 Hardy, Ian. "The Evolution of ARPANET email." History Thesis, UC 882 Berkeley. 883 http://server.berkeley.edu/virtual-berkeley/email_history 885 Hauben, Ronda and Michael. "The Netizens and the Wonderful World of 886 the Net." 887 http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ 889 Kulikowski, Stan II. "A Timeline of Network History." (author's 890 email below) 892 Quarterman, John. "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing 893 Systems Worldwide." Bedford, MA: Digital Press. 1990 895 "ARPANET, the Defense Data Network, and Internet". Encyclopedia of 896 Communications, Volume 1. Editors: Fritz Froehlich, Allen Kent. 897 New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. 1991 899 Internet growth summary compiled from: 900 - zone program reports maintained by Mark Lottor at: 901 ftp://ftp.nw.com/pub/zone/ 902 - connectivity table maintained by Larry Landweber at: 903 ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/connectivity_table/ 905 WWW growth summary compiled from: 906 - Web Growth Summary page by Matthew Gray of MIT: 907 http://www.mit.edu/people/mkgray/net/web-growth-summary.html 908 - Netcraft at http://www.netcraft.com/survey/ 910 USENET growth summary compiled from Quarterman and Hauben sources 911 above, and news.lists postings. Lots of historical USENET postings 912 also provided by Tom Fitzgerald (fitz@wang.com). 914 I/D Hobbes' Internet Timeline August 1997 916 5. Acknowledgements 918 Contributors to Hobbes' Internet Timeline have their initials next 919 to the contributed items in the form (:zzz:) and are: 921 ad1 - Arnaud Dufour (arnaud.dufour@hec.unil.ch) 922 amk - Alex McKenzie (mckenzie@bbn.com) 923 ec1 - Eric Carroll (eric@enfm.utcc.utoronto.ca) 924 esr - Eric S. Raymond (esr@locke.ccil.org) 925 feg - Farrell E. Gerbode (farrell@is.rice.edu) 926 gck - Gary C. Kessler (kumquat@hill.com) 927 glg - Gail L. Grant (grant@glgc.com) 928 gmc - Grant McCall (g.mccall@unsw.edu.au) 929 gst - Graham Thomas (G.S.Thomas@uel.ac.uk) 930 irh - Ian R Hardy (hardy@uclink2.berkeley.edu) 931 jap - Jean Armour Polly (mom@netmom.com) 932 jg1 - Jim Gaynor (gaynor@agvax.ag.ohio.state.edu) 933 kf1 - Ken Fockler (fockler@hq.canet.ca) 934 lhl - Larry H. Landweber (lhl@cs.wisc.edu) 935 mpc - Mellisa P. Chase (pc@mitre.org) 936 pb1 - Paul Burchard (burchard@cs.princeton.edu) 937 pds - Peter da Silva (peter@baileynm.com) 938 ph1 - Peter Hoffman (hoffman@ece.nps.navy.mil) 939 rab - Roger A. Bielefeld (rab@hal.cwru.edu) 940 sc1 - Susan Calcari (susanc@is.internic.net) 941 sk2 - Stan Kulikowski (stankuli@uwf.bitnet) - see sources section 942 sw1 - Stephen Wolff (swolff@cisco.com) 943 tp1 - Tim Pozar (pozar@kumr.lns.com) 944 twc - Thomas W. Creedon - K'o Wei Li (tcreedon@mitre.org) 945 vgc - Vinton Cerf (vcerf@isoc.org) - see sources section 946 wz1 - W. Zorn (zorn@ira.uka.de) 947 zby - Zenel Batagelj (zenel.batagelj@uni-lj.si) 949 6. Security Considerations 951 Security issues are not discussed in this document. 953 7. Author's Address 955 Robert H Zakon 956 Internet Evangelist 957 The MITRE Corporation 958 1820 Dolley Madison Blvd 959 McLean, Virginia, USA 22102 960 Phone: (703) 883-7790 961 EMail: zakon@info.isoc.org 963 8. Disclaimer 965 The views expressed in this document are the author's 966 and are not intended to represent in any way The MITRE 967 Corporation or its opinions on this subject matter. 969 INTERNET DRAFT EXPIRE FEB 1998 INTERNET DRAFT