Internet history (was: We need a better Internet)

[Benjamin Scott]

On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:14 AM, Ric Werme <ewerme at comcast.net> wrote:
> The follow on to the ARPAnet, the
> Internet, started around 1980 with the publishing of the core Internet
> protocols and porting classics like the new (1973) FTP and Telnet protocols
> and new ones like NFS and the rest of ONC-RPC.

  I wasn't there, but as I recall from reading histories: The original
ARPANET ran something called NCP (Network Control Program).  NCP was
sort of like a limited version of TCP-over-IP.  It was one-way, i.e.,
you needed two NCP connections to make a bidirection channel.  This is
why all the classic Internet application protocols (Telnet, FTP, SMTP,
DNS, etc.) have odd numbers -- the even numbers were reserved for the
return channel.  The ARPANET was cut-over to IP and TCP at some point,
and continued to run that way.

  Since ARPANET was nominally the domain of the US military, other
networks (like NSFNET) were started, using the same standards, but
with different nominal jurisdiction.  Gateways were established.
Eventually the various networks converged into the thing we call "the
Internet" today.  There isn't a clear line, in space or time, between
"ARPANET" and "Internet".

> Linux didn't appear until 1991
> or so. I was "off net" in 1980, but I think BSD Unix is to the Internet as
> TENEX and PDP-10s were to the ARPAnet.

  I believe the original "IP/TCP" implementation was on a non-Unix as
well, although I don't have a reference to hand.

  RFC-801, "NCP/TCP transition plan" (1981), documents part of this.
Appendix D lists known implementations in alphabetical order (no
mention of incept dates).  Several Unixes appear, including BSD, but
also AT&T Research Unix V6 and V6, including what we would today call
a "distribution" by BBN.

-- Ben