This is how the net looked like in the beginning. The exploration of this simulation of early arpanet and bbs hosts is like a descent into a cave filled with unknown riches, much as it was at the time many people got their first modems and started discovering the proto-internet. [more inside]
posted by hat_eater on Jun 3, 2011 - 66 comments

Forty years ago today, Leonard Kleinrock and a team of engineers at UCLA connected to Stanford Research Institute and typed (an incomplete) message between the first two nodes of the Internet: "lo." [more inside]
posted by starman on Oct 29, 2009 - 35 comments

Happy 40th birthday, RFC 1!
posted by loquacious on Apr 7, 2009 - 17 comments

History of the Internet is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.
posted by Surfin' Bird on Jan 6, 2009 - 17 comments

Vanity Fair has a typically excellent article out -- "How the Web Was Won," an oral history of the Web. Even if you're familiar with ARPANet, Metcalfe's Law, Pearl Harbor Day, the VC rush, whatever -- the story told by the often-animated people at the center of the whirlwind is an enlightening and entertaining experience. And for those of you don't know the history of the Internet, learn it! This is part of your heritage now. [more inside]
posted by spiderwire on Jun 4, 2008 - 19 comments

Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing (Google video) A fascinating 30 minute documentary about ARPAnet - the precursor to today's Internet. (Can you spot the real ubernerd mover and shaker at BBN? Hint: He wears no tie!) (via: all over the place)
posted by loquacious on Mar 19, 2006 - 30 comments

I wondered who invented the Internet. Some people would say Al Gore, but even after reading parts of the history of the Internet (first link), I can't figure it out. I think the "USSR" prompted us to do it when they launched Sputnik. Is this really the case?
posted by eyesandfists on Jul 24, 2000 - 16 comments