The Internet dates back to the early 60’s where the US military were trying to find ways to protect their computers from a Soviet attack. The aim was to build a computer network that would withstand a nuclear strike. At the same time research was being done to make packets of information smaller and to enable these packets to be sent individually through any convenient connection and reassembled by the target computer. In 1969 the Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) set up ARPANET, this was a physical structure that would connect 4 universities in the US. The University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and University of Utah. It was a major success, and although, it was originally designed to allow scientist to share data and to access remote computers, it begins to grow rapidly and by 1971 ARPANET grows to 23 hosts connecting University and Government research agencies around the world. Not before long scientists around America were hijacking the system. Because of this the military set up MILNET, which was restricted to them. Everybody else was left with the fledgling Internet.

It wasn’t until 1973 that the Internet reached Europe, when ARPANET connected to University College in London, and the Royal Radar Establishment in Norway. In 1974 Bolt, Beranek & Newman opens Telenet, the first commercial version of ARPANET and over the next few years the Internet just got bigger and bigger. I the late 70’s ARPANET begins to move away from the military/research roots and the first e-mail system was launched In 1979 Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, two grad students at Duke University, and Steve Bellovin at the University of North Carolina establish the first USENET newsgroup. Users from all over the world, join theses discussion groups to talk about the net, politics, religion, and thousands of other subjects, and by 1981 ARPANET has 213 host, growing by one every 20 days. The following year the term "Internet" is used for the first time. The 80’s see the introduction of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol), which were invented by Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf, these was to become the common language of all Internet computers. It was around this time that the boom came in the personal computer and super- minicomputer industries. The combination of inexpesive desktop machines and powerful, network- ready servers allows many companies to communicate with each other and with their customers.

1n 1984 NSFNET was founded the National Science Foundation- a US government agency. Their aim was to provide any educational establishment access to its scientific databases. Its regional structure blended perfectly into the existing Internet and provided hundreds of dedicated computers permanently connected to the system. In the next couple of years the whole network improved greatly with faster machines and more efficient telephone lines. It was around this time that commercial companies started to use the Internet. And E- commerce was born. In the late 80’s fears arose about privacy and security in the digital world. New words like "Hacker", "Cracker" and "Electronic break in" were created. The Internet was running smoothly until 1988 when the first Internet virus came. It was called the worm. 6,000 of the then 60,000 hosts were temporarily disabled. By the end of the 80’s there was over 300,000 hosts on the Internet.

At the start of the 90’s the World Wide Web was born. The idea first cane about when in 1989,Tim Berners-Lee, from the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland, developed a system that allowed Physicists to share their research results over the Internet. They put together a simple way to display information on screen and move it about by using "Hyperlinks". It was another two years, however before Marc Andreesen and a team of students at the National Centre for supercomputers Applications (NCSA) in Illinois, USA, developed the first graphical browser. This made the Internet more user-friendly and accessible to everyone. It has gone from strength to strength ever since. Who could have imagined the possibilities 30 years ago. What started out as a US military strategy to protect their computers from bomb attacks has become the Information Highway.

The Internet is made up of networked data and tools for its manipulation. It is shared among the world; millions upon millions use it nowadays, whether it is for research or sending e-mail or even ordering a pizza, the Internet can meet your every need. The Internet is made up of networked data and tools for its manipulation. It is used by Hundred’s of millions of people in colleges and businesses and in homes all over the world. It truly is a world-wide phenomenon and it can only keep getting bigger.