The Internet - A Brief History and It's Common Uses

This section will provide an introduction to the history of the internet and its common uses.  After briefly discussing the origins of the internet in the United States and Australia, some of the uses of the internet will be explored. These include the world wide web, file transfer, email, Usenet, telnet, IRC and real time video and audio applications.

The internet began in the 1960's as part of a project by the United States to develop a nuclear proof communication network for use by the scientific and academic research community. This was known as the Advanced Research Project Agency Network, or ARPANET. Although initially developed to allow the sharing of computing resources it quickly became a kind of electronic post office (Petre & Harrington (1996:11)). ARPANET used a communication protocol known as TCP/IP. (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) This enabled any computer to connect to the ARPANET so long as each connecting computer used TCP/IP.

ARPANET grew throughout the seventies and eighties and the "complex branch of networks that evolved came to be known as the Internet." (Petre & Harrington (1996:11)). In the mid eighties, the National Science Foundation developed the NSFNET to provide a high speed connection for supercomputers across the US. (MacKie-Mason & Varian (1997:28)). Both these networks have now been shut down, the traffic instead being carried by private networks. (MacKie-Mason & Varian (1997:30))

The early Australian experience with the internet began with the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNET), which connects the major academic and research organisations within Australia. Originally the responsibility of the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee , in 1995 responsibility for management of AARNET traffic and customers shifted to Telstra. However in July 1997, Telstra's main competitor, Optus, took over responsibility for the AVCC's newly established regional networks. (McLaughlin (1997)) Today the main users of the AARNET continue to be the academic and research organisations.

Users outside of these organisations usually connect through an Internet Access Provider (IAP), often a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). It is estimated that approximately one million Australians now connect to the internet from their own home. (Dale (1998)) In turn, these ISP's are then normally connected to one of the private wholesale providers of internet access such as Telstra, Optus or Connect.com.

WWW . Browsing the World Wide Web is the most popular use of the internet (Dale (1998)). Using an interface known as a 'browser'¹, a user can view web 'pages' which may consist of text, images, sounds, animations or video footage. Web pages are constructed using the hyper-text markup language (.html) One of the main features of web pages is the use of hyper-text links. These enable a user to select a link to another document and the browser will load that page for the user. For example, in the web based version of this document, clicking on this link (http://u2.newcastle.edu.au) will take the user to the home page for the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, at Newcastle, Australia.

A wide range of information and services is available from the web. Some examples include on line newspapers (http://www.smh.com.au/index.html), online shopping for books (http://www.amazon.com) and clothes (http://www.lowesaus.com.au/), online personals columns (http://www.adultfriendfinder.com), government institutions (http://www.nsw.gov.au), academic institutions (http://www.newcastle.edu.au) and even on-line casinos (http://www.casino.com/). The content of the web is probably as diverse as human thought itself ² and therefore also includes material of a questionable nature(gopher://wiretap.spies.com:70/11/Library/Untech).

FTP - File Transfer Protocol. Using FTP, users are able to transfer files from one computer on the internet to another. Hahn & Stout (1994:23) recognise that one of the most important uses of FTP is anonymous FTP. This allows users to anonymously access certain files made available to the general public. This could include electronic magazines, archives of Usenet, technical documentation and shareware³ computer programs. Whilst this may have historically made FTP important, much of the same information is now available via the more popular web.

Email - One of the earliest uses of the internet was for sending electronic mail. Email also remains one of the most popular uses of the internet with 59% of adults with internet access using their email on a daily basis. (eStats (1998b)) Originally electronic mail was restricted to plain text. Recent developments however allow some email programs to send and receive .html formatted email messages which include sound, images and hypertext links.⁴

Telnet - Telnet is a facility which allows users to log in to computers on the internet. "Once connected, whatever you type is passed to the other computer; whatever responses the other computer makes are passed back to you." (Levine & Young (1995:223)) Thus, using telnet, an internet user can access and make use of remote computers as if they were the users own computer.

IRC and other chat programs - Internet Relay Chat⁵ is a text based chat program which allows users to 'chat' in real time to other users connected to the IRC network. IRC could be seen as being the internet equivalent to Citizen Band radio. After connecting to the chat network through an IRC server, users join 'channels' and chat with other users on the channel. Channels are controlled by 'operators' who control the channel and may or may not moderate the discussion. Users can also initiate private chat sessions with other users as well as send or receive files such as images or software.

Usenet - Usenet stands for 'Users Network' and "is a system of discussion groups in which individual articles are distributed throughout the world" (Hahn & Stout (1994:22-23))  Usenet groups are arranged in to hierarchies. These may be geographic, (e.g. aus.* for Australia, ncle.* for Newcastle), or by discussion type (e.g. sci.* for scientific discussion, talk.* for general discussion). Sub hierarchies tend to be organised along topic lines. (e.g. aus.censorship for discussing censorship in Australia).

Real time video and audio - another of the more recent developments has been the increasing use of real time video and audio applications. This can be incorporated into web pages and viewed with a web browser, or may require additional software such as RealPlayer™ (http://www.realplayer.com).

From it's origins as a purely academic and research orientated network, the internet has grown to become a global network of computers providing a wide range of information and entertainment services. In Australia, the internet has grown from being a network dominated by educational institutions to include a much broader range of users. In the next section of this essay, the components of demand for internet usage will be introduced and discussed. 

Endnotes 

1.The two most common browsers are Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.  Navigator's market share early in 1998 was estimated at being 55%, with Internet Explorer at 39% and other browsers 6%. (eStats (1998a))

5. Those interested in IRC can learn more from the IRC FAQ (Lo (1997)) or the new users guide (Biscuits (1998)).

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