Internet History

The collection of people, hardware, and software ­- the multiaccess computer together with its local community of users — will become a node in a geographically distributed computer network. Let us assume for a moment that such a network has been formed.

J.C.R. Licklider, Robert Taylor, The Computer as a Communication Device, 1968.

The Internet is a large, complex information space that reflects much of the variety of our physical world. The key people, organizations, and events that shaped the development of this remarkable virtual universe are described in the following sections:

    • Timesharing computers
    • SNDMSG & READMAIL
    • RD
    • NRD
    • WRD / BANANARD
    • MSG
    • MS / MH
    • RFC 773
    • MMDF
    • Sendmail
    • Commercial Email
    • Online Services