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Internet, now 20 years in Australia

C

Clocky

Jan 1, 1970
0
Electronworks.co.uk said:
Hi Don

Thanks for this. A trip down amnesia lane. It facinates me that the
internet is so young and yet has had such an impact on people's
lives. It is good to see JANET mentioned as well as this was the
first network I used to send email when at University back in 1987.
Little did I know email would now dictate my life.

Times have changed. Can you imagine life without mobile phones, PCs
and the internet? I was all so different back then...

Yet people have forgotten how to communicate, go figure.
 
D

Davo

Jan 1, 1970
0
basil said:
Hello, I bought a Commodore 64 in 1984. The internet was rudimentary
until the Sydney Morning Herald opened up the topic. Email was
possible tho I think it was just messaging copied from the English
Prestel. I was friendly with a group of techies from Telecom. The
internet came for me with the Amiga. We had an early way to get to the
internet but as there was no server on NSW Central Coast for a while
we had to download what we wanted and looked at it later. Remember the
user groups? Dick Smith was the first I saw of shopping.

nof

I was on Packet radio long before the internet.
Real internet didn't start until HTML code came along.
 
C

Chris McDonald

Jan 1, 1970
0
I was on Packet radio long before the internet.
Real internet didn't start until HTML code came along.


I, too, was wondering about this definition of the Internet in Australia.
(Like many) I was using UUCP-based email, TCP/connection-based FTP,
and cross-Pacific telnet, well before 1989, so I wonder if the arrival
of HTTP/HTML is really just a simplifying generalization.
 
K

keithr

Jan 1, 1970
0
Davo said:
I was on Packet radio long before the internet.
Real internet didn't start until HTML code came along.

That is true of the "Popular" internet which started with the first
browsers, the "Real" internet even the WWW had been going long before that.
 
D

Davo

Jan 1, 1970
0
Chris said:
I, too, was wondering about this definition of the Internet in Australia.
(Like many) I was using UUCP-based email, TCP/connection-based FTP,
and cross-Pacific telnet, well before 1989, so I wonder if the arrival
of HTTP/HTML is really just a simplifying generalization.

Well otherwise you could say that morse code was a form of internet, or
even lighting signal fires on top of hills, I mean really, you need a
better definition of internet.
 
C

Clifford Heath

Jan 1, 1970
0
Davo said:
Real internet didn't start until HTML code came along.

Internet == inter-networking, i.e. connecting existing networks,
especially using TCP/IP. It was happening more than a decade
before "the web" was invented, and even now "the web" is *not*
"the Internet".

Clifford Heath.
 
C

Chris McDonald

Jan 1, 1970
0
Davo said:
Well otherwise you could say that morse code was a form of internet, or
even lighting signal fires on top of hills, I mean really, you need a
better definition of internet.

As IP can be transmitted via morse code, I wouldn't discount it.
However, I certainly wouldn't claim it *was* the internet any time before the
appearance of IP.
 
T

terryc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Internet == inter-networking, i.e. connecting existing networks,
especially using TCP/IP. It was happening more than a decade before "the
web" was invented, and even now "the web" is *not* "the Internet".

I agree that The Internet is something specific as above. Otherwise we
end up discussing whether inter-networking started with dial up modems or
tape exchanges or early OCR of hand written letters, or ......


For me the closest was the 80's and dialing up up a BBS on a CPM luggable
for Fidonet. When I finally hit an internet connected network in the
90's, the "outside" link was only 9600 baud anyway {:), so were were
still using BBS technology to transfer files between offices.
 
T

terryc

Jan 1, 1970
0
As IP can be transmitted via morse code, I wouldn't discount it.
However, I certainly wouldn't claim it *was* the internet any time
before the appearance of IP.

Second on the core Internet being tcp/ip technology. There were other
networks, but it is the inter-connectability that made the Internet work.

HTML is just a eye-candy delivery method.

AFAIK, most other networks were structured around a hierachy. In The
Internet, so long as machine has an IP address, it can talk to any other
IP address.
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Clifford Heath wrote
Davo wrote
Internet == inter-networking, i.e. connecting existing networks,

Nope, thats not the internet. And it doesnt have to connect networks either, just PCs.
especially using TCP/IP.

Thats mangled too when that happens with lans.
It was happening more than a decade before "the web" was invented, and even now "the web" is *not* "the Internet".

Correct.
 
M

Mr.T

Jan 1, 1970
0
In *your* opinion. Many of us were using the internet before then.
I, too, was wondering about this definition of the Internet in Australia.
(Like many) I was using UUCP-based email, TCP/connection-based FTP,
and cross-Pacific telnet, well before 1989, so I wonder if the arrival
of HTTP/HTML is really just a simplifying generalization.

No, it's just plain wrong.

MrT.
 
M

Mr.T

Jan 1, 1970
0
Chris McDonald said:
As IP can be transmitted via morse code, I wouldn't discount it.
However, I certainly wouldn't claim it *was* the internet any time before the
appearance of IP.

Yep, but of course was far more than 20 years ago.

MrT.
 
M

Mr.T

Jan 1, 1970
0
keithr said:
That is true of the "Popular" internet which started with the first
browsers, the "Real" internet even the WWW had been going long before
that.

Whilst the internet, email, ftp, Archie, veronica, Usenet, etc. etc were all
going long before HTML, I think WWW was a term introduced with the advent of
the "Web" as opposed to text based internet. i.e. HTML and subsequently the
Mosaic viewer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web

MrT.
 
D

Davo

Jan 1, 1970
0
terryc said:
Second on the core Internet being tcp/ip technology. There were other
networks, but it is the inter-connectability that made the Internet work.

HTML is just a eye-candy delivery method.

AFAIK, most other networks were structured around a hierachy. In The
Internet, so long as machine has an IP address, it can talk to any other
IP address.

It may only be eye candy but HTML is what made the internet useful and
easy to use. The internet would still only be known to nerdy geeks if
HTML didn't exist. Packet radio was one of many networking systems, IP
addressing wasn't the first. I was communicating with people on the MIR
space station before the IP internet came to town.
 
C

Chris McDonald

Jan 1, 1970
0
No, it's just plain wrong.

*What* is just plain wrong?

- I was doing what I stated well before 1989.
- I wonder if many people just consider "the internet" to mean the period
after the arrival of HTTP/HTML.

Which of those statements is wrong, and why?
 
M

Mr.T

Jan 1, 1970
0
Davo said:
It may only be eye candy but HTML is what made the internet useful and
easy to use. The internet would still only be known to nerdy geeks if
HTML didn't exist.

Ironic considering *you* are posting on a part of the internet that existed
long before the advent of the HTML based WWW. :)

MrT.
 
T

terryc

Jan 1, 1970
0
It may only be eye candy but HTML is what made the internet useful and
easy to use.

umm, Davo's comment, email, archie, gopher and probably other I've never
used.

it was useful before
The internet would still only be known to nerdy geeks if
HTML didn't exist.

well used by nerdy geeks. HTML is really dross for the stupid; people who
are basically illiterate.
Packet radio was one of many networking systems,

Correct, there were many networking systems around. None of which had the
versatility of the internet, which is partly why they all disappeared.
The Internet is a bit Borgish really, if your networking system can
interface to it, then your networking system can be part of the internet.

The thing about it wasn't just the physical interface, it is the
"virtual" interfaces like email, usenet, etc,etc. If your networking
system can interface to those, then that part of the internet can be on
your network.

The other problem with proprietary networks was the "cost", you had to
buy the hardware (bleed $$$$) and the software (bleed $$$$).

IP addressing wasn't the first.

Not the issue. It wasn't invented, but evolved.
 
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