A History of Computer Networking

Computer Networking refers to the group of computers or devices interconnected to share resources and communicate with other devices.

What is Computer Networking?

The Current Population of the world is around 7.6 billion and if we see the no of devices connected to the Internet is around 50 billion so every person is using around 6 devices that are connected to the internet. This number is increasing since the first usage of computer networking. Everything is getting automated and has capabilities to communicate and manage themselves all due to the power of computer networking.

You are not able to read this article by just searching about the topic and getting the results in just a few milliseconds. You can use Google, YouTube, and watch other content with just by few clicks all because of the Powerful Network Called the Internet. Internet is the Network of Networks Where every device connected to the network can access anything on the internet.

For every Achievement, We need to go through lots of failures and testing. So Let's see the origin and evolution of the computer network and why it was created. And how it developed into the Internet with these huge Functionalities. 

Timeline of Computer Networks

Before computers and Networks, The only way of Communication was Telegraph by sending messages income codes like Morse, Cypher, or Creaser codes. Then soon it evolved into Telecommunication using cables Which were invented by Alexander Graham Bell. And after computers came into existence we needed a network to handle them. So let's the timeline of the events.

The Year might not be Accurate but are closely near to them

• 1836 - 1840 : These was the initial stages of communication where People thought there should be a mechanism for communicating with each other Telegraph is the only method they used to communicate in this period

• 1858 - 1866: Communication via Cables was developing in these years. Cables were set up between towns and cities for communication. But this was limited to only a few places.

• 1875 - 1880: The Telephone device developed by Alexander Graham Bell was taken into consideration and accepted as a device for communication. This was the initial step for computer networks.

• 1957: US forms an agency known as Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) By the department of defense for developing Us in computer Technology as Russia or USSR launches the First satellite into space Sputnik.

• 1962: ARPA was collaborating with other universities and  Foundations for developing this sector which later became ARPANET

• 1962 - 1968: For networking, some proper mechanism needs to be developed. Packet Switching was Developed these years. Today the internet runs on packets. The data which is sent across devices are divided into packets and sent across the network. This was another milestone for Computer Networking.

• 1969 - 1974: Electronic Mail or Email was invented by Ray Tomlinson for sending data across the ARPANET. The first international Connection was Successful between the University of London and the Royal Radar Establishment (Norway). Another Milestone was developed this year which was TCP till date TCP is the most used Protocol in Networking. TELNET protocol was also created during this time. 

• 1977 - 1983: Email Became Famous So many People were Trying to use Email for communication. Establishment of TCP/IP protocol suite for ARPANET. This was really the crucial year for changing the future of networking.

• 1983 - 1989: Name Server and Domain Name Server with 5000+ hosts was developed. WWW or World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners Lee Which is the backbone of the present internet. and Hosts and no of users of the network were rapidly increasing.

• 1990 - 1993: Concepts like Search Engines came into the picture which is the tool you use to search this article and all other information. The No of devices connected to the internet was around 300,000+, First browser also came into existence, and around 600 sites in WWW. Mosaic Web Browser was also introduced. The term "Surfing the Internet" was coined by Jean Armour Polly.

• 1994 - 1997: The no of sites and hosts was increasing drastically with millions of hosts and millions of websites. Hotmail was introduced. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was also found these years. Java was developed in 1995.

• 1998: One of the greatest Companies called GOOGLE was founded this year With an enormous amount of data and information. Firewalls System was also developed during these years. And information Security was also taken into the picture.

• 1999 - 2003: Many other Popular protocols like WiFi and WPA were introduced this year. Wireless technology was also increasing now. devices started connecting with each other wirelessly.

Present Situation of Computer Networking

And the rest is the present around 60 billion users and 1.7 websites. These numbers never stop decreasing. Every thousand devices are getting automated and connected to the internet and new web pages are being developed by Bloggers like me. Now we also have many other different platforms like social media YouTube etc.

Many other technologies like Bitcoins, blockchain, digital marketing, E-commerce Websites, Gaming, and many more are changing the networking and internet drastically. In the present case, the most concerning issue is about the security of the data and information. As Computers are getting evolved the ways to crack them and steal data are also increasing. Hackers and Hacking have become a major part of the internet. We should just wait and watch and change what comes in the future.

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