Ready to start study session 3 (Block 2 Part 1)

Completed study session 2 of Block 2 Part 1. I am now here. The little activities that are supposed to take just 5 or 10 minutes are actually taking me rather longer - even though much of the subject matter at the moment is hardly new to me. I have a gnawing need to do them correctly and thoroughly, which doesn't bode well for when my time is under real pressure.

I need to try to start prioritising a little bit.

Here's my brief history of the internet piece for Activity 6 of the above session:

A Brief History of the Internet

The origins of the internet can be traced back to the computer communications network created jointly by MIT and the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; ARPAnet, created in 1969. Arpanet was the first network to feature packet switching, was used for file transfer and email, and only connected academic and government institutions.

ARPANet initially ran on the NCP (Network Control Protocol) protocol developed by Vinton Cerf. He and Robert E. Kahn later developed the more flexible and powerful TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) suite, which was applied to ARPANet in 1983, and on which the modern internet still runs. Cerf and Kahn are known as the fathers of the internet.

The original and ageing ARPANet backbone was replaced by the government sponsored NSFNet (National Science Foundation Network) in 1989, which was itself replaced by decentralised commercial network architecture in 1995. The self-designated ‘Tier 1’ networks are now the heart of the internet.

Source: Internet Guide, 2010.