"First Internet message" and ...

Richard Pope mechanic_2 at charter.net
Mon Nov 25 12:45:14 CST 2019


Noel,
     Isn't the proper term for my network of computers here at home: 
internet and the term : Internet the proper term for the worldwide 
collection of networked computers?
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!

On 11/25/2019 12:06 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:
>      > 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
>



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