The History of Computer Networking

There has been dabbling of networking for reasons that were scientifically intended back in time. It was mainly hackers that were knee deep in computer networking before computers were really even developed.

The hackers were utilizing mock terminals that resembled computer screens with keyboards that were connected to one large computer which was responsible for doing all of the processing.

They were placed here and there, mainly along the West coast. The network used permanent links that stayed in one small location rather than using phone lines or modems.

Then after that, which by the way was still very early for computer networking, there were community networks that consisted of small businesses with online universities, community bulletin boards, artists networks, seniors clubs, women’s networks. By the end of the 1980's these networks began to join the Internet for connectivity.

By the late 1980's many community networks had joined and formed what was eventually called the Internet Society for network builders. They focused on connectivity and key words. This was about the time that AOL starting making a presence and from there a commercial future was blooming.

In the meantime there were many academic and research people that wanted to join in networking and then many others started to display an interest.

It then dubbed the name Computer and Science networking. Not until the late 1990's was there really much significance that the academic circles would penetrate the Internet networking.

In the later part of the 1990's the Internet exploded with growth which had a great deal to do with the beginning of computer networking. There have been many trials and errors when it comes to the Internet but there have been some solid contributors that have sculpted the history of computer networking. In the very late 1990's computer networking was not without struggles as there was the introduction first of the cable modem and DSL.

There then became a great need to connect computers so communication could develop between and through each other.
It has been computer networking which has shown the most significant changes in the computer industry that people have seen to date. It displayed a change from utilizing the computer for computational purposes to using it as a communicating device.

The Internet has grown so massively that it resulted in the need for connecting these devices. Computer networks have been around for only a few decades now but it has only been very recently that they have become popular in home use.

Around 2000, there really were not that many people who did have a home computer network but when surveyed many did show an interest in having one.

Today literally millions of households in the United States alone have computer networks in their homes. Still millions more show an interest and some who already are using a computer network are now interested in advancing to a wireless network which is becoming more and more popular for home use.

This suggests that the need for multiple computers even within home use has increased dramatically.