100 Ideas that Changed the Web

The infrastructure that carries the Web

IDEA N^o 10

THE INTERNET

The terms ‘World Wide Web’ and ‘internet’ are often used interchangeably, which is plain wrong. The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. It is the infrastructure that carries email, instant messaging, Voiceover IP, network games, file transfer and, of course, the Web.

The origins of the internet reach back to ARPANET, the communications system designed by the US government to survive a nuclear attack (see The Space Race). Paul Baran’s solution was to divide messages into packets, send them via multiple paths and reassemble them on arrival – a system that became known as packet switching. The first message was sent over ARPANET on 29 October 1969. Charley ...