CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS THE INTERNET Long Long ago if people wanted to communicate they wrote letters News took days or even months to get from place to place Today people can share photos or send e mail with just a tap on a screen They can also video chat with friends or stream movies The Internet makes all of this possible Many people use social networks to connect with friends on the Internet
Sending e mail is a popular use for the Internet The Internet is a network of networks It allows computers to share tasks and send information Today the Internet has billions of users But it began as a small network of only two computers The network was called ARPAnet It was created in the autumn of 1969 Researchers used it to send messages between two universities in California
At first ARPAnet connected only these two computers By December 1969 the network had four computers ARPAnet continued to grow throughout the 1970s and 1980s Other organizations began their own networks too All these different networks connected to each other A computer that was part of one network could share information with computers on any of the other networks Together these networks came to be known as the Internet At first only universities government agencies and nonprofit organizations could use the Internet Most people did not know it existed
