"First Internet message" and ...

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Fred Cisin

    > Is that message about 1) history of internet? (THANK YOU for specifying
    > "internet", otherwise "computer to computer" involves much older history.
    > ...
    > those messages were sent on PRECURSORS to the internet, NOT on the
    > internet.

Did you mean "internet" or 'Internet'?

The poorly educated cretins at the AP nothwithstanding, those are two
different words, with _different meanings_.


    > Definition and history of the WORD "internet" is also critical
    > ...
    > do you know of any actual use of the word/name "internet" prior to the
    > December 1974 RFC about TCP?

I believe the word 'internet' was coined for:

      V. Cerf and R. Kahn, "A Protocol For Packet Network
      Intercommunication," IEEE Transactions on Communication, vol. C-
      2O, No. 5. May 1974, pp. 637-648.

There was earlier work in the general area of connecting computer data
networks together, performed in the International Packet Network Working
Group (INWG), which had an alternative term 'catenet' which had much the same
meaning as 'internet'. (Although little-known, the INWG - not to be confused
with the later DARPA-centric group of the same acronym - is documented in two
papers, a draft one by Ronda Hauben, and a later one by Alex McKenzie.) I
don't know if the term 'internet' was used there before its appearance in the
Cerf/Kakhn paper.

Interestingly, "Internetworking" is mentioned in RFC604, December 1973, so
the word was in circulation in the technical community before the Cerf/Kahn
paper came out.


"Internet" came along later, when we needed a name for the internet centered
around the ARPANET. The need was discussed on the then-central email list for
the TCP/IP community (which may have been called 'inwg' - my memory is, alas,
fading), and we decided on 'Internet'.

I'd previously looked for the first use of 'Internet' in that sense in the
RFC's, and found it, but I don't remember what it was! Looking again, there's
a lot of 'Internet Protocol' and similar things to sort out; I see an
'Internet' in RFC780, May 1981, but it's marginal (it says "ARPA Internet");
the first 'true' use of 'Internet' on its own in the current meaning which
I found was in RFC821, August 1982.

	Noel