Page 10 - DCAP207_NETWORKS_DCAP406_COMPUTER_NETWORKS

Unit 1: Introduction to Computer Networks

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1987: 1000 RFC and 10,000 host. Notes
1988: Robert Tappan Morris releases the first Internet Worm and CERT was set up in
response to this. Backbone speed upgraded to 1.544 Mbps. IRC developed.
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1989: 100,000 host. Cuckoo’s Egg released by Cliff Stoll telling true story of East German
cracker accessing US installations.
1990: ARPAnet ceased to exist and the Internet effectively took its role.

1991: Gopher, a software program for retrieving information from servers on the Internet
was made available by the University of Minnesota. The US Government announced that
it no longer intended to restrict activity on the Internet to research. This policy shift was
sufficient for 12 companies to co-operate and produce CIX. Phil Zimmerman released
PGP. Backbone speed upgraded to 44.736 Mbps.

1992: The World Wide Web became a possibility after CERN, in Switzerland, released
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hypertext. 1,000,000 Host. The author gets his first dialup email account with Demon
Internet (Nov. 1992).
1993: Mosaic, a software program to browse Web sites written by Marc Andreesen, was
released followed by Netscape.

1994: Shopping Malls arrive on the Internet. The UK Treasury goes on line and the first
cyberbank opens. The first banner adverts appeared for Zima (a drink) and AT&T.
1995: Traditional dialup services (AOL, CompuServe etc) start to provide dialup services.
The Vatican goes on line. A number of Internet companies go public. Netscape leads the
field with the largest ever IPO on NASDAQ. DEC launches AltaVista, which claims to
index every HTML page there is. Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com. eBay is launched.
1996: 9,272 organizations find themselves unlisted after the InterNIC drops their name
service as a result of not having paid their domain name fee. Various ISPs suffer extended
service outages, bringing into question whether they will be able to handle the growing
number of users. AOL (19 hours), Netcom (13 hours), AT&T WorldNet (28 hours - email
only). China requires users of the Internet to register with the Police. Saudi Arabia restricts
use to universities and hospitals. Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for US$15,000. Backbone
speed upgraded to 622 Mbps.
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1997: 2000 RFC. 16 Million hosts. 1,000,000 Domain name registered (March 6 for
Bonny View Cottage Furniture Company).
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1998: 3,000,000 Domain name registered. US Postal authorities allow purchase of postage
stamps on line for downloading and printing. Gigabit Ethernet standard ratified. Google
is launched.
1999: First full service bank opens on the Internet (First Internet Bank of Indiana). First
forged web page, looking like Bloomberg, raises the shares of a small company by 31%
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(7 April). Melissa strikes. 5,000,000 Domain name registered. First Cyberwar starts
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between Serbia and Kosovo. Shawn Fanning Launches Napster — record labels are furious.
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2000: 10,000,000 Domain name registered. French Courts require that ‘hate’ memorabilia
for sale on Yahoo’s auction site must be removed. Gnutella is launched. ICANN selects
new top level domains. Backbone is upgraded to IPv6.
2001: Forwarding email becomes illegal in Australia (Digital Agenda Act). Napster forced
to suspend service after legal action. Taliban bans the Internet in Afghanistan. Nimda
released on the Internet.
2002: Distributed denial of Service attack hits 13 DNS root servers, causing national security
concerns.

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