Upgrading and Repairing Networks, Fifth Edition

CHAPTER 1. A Short History of Computer Networking

Today, computer networks are taken for granted much as the telephone network is. The telephone network was, until the explosive growth of the Internet, the largest network in the world. It just wasn’t a computer network. You could use modems to connect computers to each other on a one-by-one basis, but this wasn’t networking in the sense we think of it today. And those early modems—300 bps or less—didn’t make the transfer of data an inexpensive matter, especially when long-distance calls were required. In a funny twist of fate, voice communications are becoming very popular in the networking world. Both corporate and home network users can now use Voice over IP (VoIP) to make telephone calls via ...