The Internet & our hobby

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-10-23 13:20, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>      > From: Johnny Billquist
>
>      > the switch to TCP/IP only happened in 1982-1983. So while the
>      > "internet" (well, ARPANET actually) existed before then, it was not
>      > TCP/IP based.
>
> The conversion of the _ARPANET_ from NCP to TCP/IP happened on 1 January,
> 1983. However, 'the Internet' (in the sense of a grouping of networks over
> which TCP/IP packets flowed) had been around for some time before that, both
> as i) a testbed for developing the TCP/IP protocols and software used for
> that cutover, and ii) for network service to machines which couldn't get an
> ARPANET port (remember that at that point in time, there were no personal
> computers, just time-sharing systems).
>
> The history of TCP/IP and the Internet up until that point is complicated (I
> lived through it, so I should remember, but alas the memory dims :-), but the
> first use for actual service (as opposed to testing software, demos, etc)
> would have been a year or two before that - exactly when is somewhat lost in
> in the mists of time.
>
> Although the ARPANET pre-dated the Internet, it was used to carry TCP/IP
> traffic (directly, not inside NCP - the protocol used between hosts on the
> ARPANET before TCP/IP) long before the cutover; it was _the_ long-haul
> network in the early Internet, and connected together all the various local
> TCP/IP 'hot spots' (to use modern jargon).
>
> 'All' that happened on January 1, 1983 was that the ability of the ARPANET to
> carry NCP packets was disabled. Of course, in the months prior to that, all
> the ARPANET hosts which didn't _already_ have TCP/IP running (many did, to
> speak to other machines locally which didn't have ARPANET ports) went through
> a big thrash to get TCP/IP software, and get it installed, tested and running.

Noel not going to try and contradict what you wrote. I merely pointed 
out that the claim that TCP/IP being the foundation of internet, came 
into existence 43 years ago is incorrect. I suspect it's because people 
now assume that "Internet" was always TCP/IP, and thus, if the internet 
is 43 years old, then TCP/IP would be 43 years, is incorrect.

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol