Actually, TCP/IP grew out of the desire to interconnect two very different kinds of network - the ARPANET, and something called the Packet Radio Network (and also a thing called SatNet). The technical details of each were such that it just wouldn't be feasible to extend the ARPANET protocols to work on them too, they were fundamentally different (I'm not talking about low level things like packet size, but higher-level concepts, like reliability, etc); something new was required - and TCP/IP looks _very_ little like the ARPANET's NCP. I snorted and started coughing when I read that! :-) Usenet had massive flame wars long before the Web existed! Noel