The Hindu : International : The Internet at 35

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 01, 2004

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International

The Internet at 35

NEW YORK, AUG. 31. Thirty-five years after computer scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot grey cable, testing a new way to exchange data over networks, what would become the Internet remains a work in progress.

University researchers are experimenting with ways to increase its capacity and speed. Programmers are trying to imbue Web pages with intelligence. And work is under way to re-engineer the network to reduce spam and security troubles.

All the while threats loom: critics warn that commercial, legal and political pressures could hinder the types of innovations that made the Internet what it is today.

Stephen Crocker and Vinton Cerf were among the graduate students who joined UCLA Professor Len Kleinrock in an engineering laboratory on September 2, 1969, as bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers. By January, three other "nodes" joined the fledgling network.

Then came e-mail, a core communications protocol called TCP/IP in the late 1970s, the domain name system in the 1980s and the World Wide Web — now the second most popular application behind e-mail — in 1990.

The Internet expanded beyond its initial military and educational domain into businesses and homes around the world.

Mr. Crocker continues work on the Internet, designing better tools for collaboration. He is trying to defend the core addressing system from outside threats, including an attempt last year by a private search engine to grab Web surfers who mistype addresses.

He acknowledges the Internet he helped build is far from finished, and changes are in store to meet growing demands for multimedia.

Mr. Cerf said he wished he could have designed the Internet with security built-in. Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc., among others, are currently trying to retrofit the network so e-mail senders can be authenticated — a way to cut down on junk messages sent using spoofed addresses.

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