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Re: 25 Years: How the Web began

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In article <alpine.LNX.2.02.1512222303180.19407@darkstar.example.org>,
Michael Black  <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:
>On Tue, 22 Dec 2015, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>
>> On Monday, December 21, 2015 at 6:08:08 PM UTC-5, Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote:
>>
>>> 25 Years: How the Web began
>>
>> I'm trying to remmeber when the web got a 'critical mass' and began
>> to be _widely_ used by the general public.
>>
>I think by 1994 things had changed a lot.
>
>The universities here only got it about 1989, and then a year or two later 
>the first local ISP (a non-profit, I think because they couldn't imagine 
>it as a money maker) appeared, you'd pay $25 or so for a relatively few 
>number of hours per month.  Their first "servers" were just some computers 
>in a closet, so I can imagine they started with just a few phone lines. 
>Others followed.  The only reason I knew about that ISP at the time was 
>because of a listing in "Boardwatch" magazine, that had started out about 
>BBS systems, but was then covering the emerging ISP field.

It was only in January 1991 that the s.k. CIX wars were won by the liberal
side, and commercial ISPs were allowed to operate freely. Before that may of the
core academic sites that had a lot of the interesting hosts resisted allowing
non-AUP (i.e. commercial) traffic onto their networks. 

They had explcit vetting of the IP addresses alowed on to the core NSF
network, which until jan 1990 was THE core of the Internet. Then some
commercial ISPs in California made a public, non-AUP access point in
California; called it the Commercial Internet eXchange, CIX. And they
had their traffic directed there. They had an all-or-nothing peering
policy; you either peered with one of them or none at all. We, as
EUnet, half a world away, participated. 

After a few months it succeeded. The academics started to defect and
had lines or tunnels to the CIX, and after a year we saw the last filter
on the NSFnet disappear. NSFnet had connected to CIX sometile during
that year.

The activist I remember from that time was Gordon Cook, who had weekly
submissions about the "war" for the Open Internet. 

Now the academic sites are just fringe activities on this Internet.

>In 1994, we started hearing about the "internet" in the local paper.  One 
>university women's group had discovered there was porn there, and thought 
>something should be done, rather than seeing the potential.
>
>In Ottawa, the Ottawa Freenet started up, actually I think it was in 1993, 
>and they started with a boom, a big influx of users who clearly knew what 
>the internet was, but had previously had no access (or perhaps more likely 
>had access at school or business, but not at home).  They had to build up 
>really fast because of the growth of the user base.
>
>By 1995, big companies like cable and telephone were starting to offer 
>internet.  Some had come in by buying an existing ISP, they had grown in 
>number since 1990, and memory says there was already consolidating, 
>mid-tier ISPs buying up some of the other ones.  The landscape changed so 
>by 2000, about 2 of the earliest ISPs still remained intact (the others 
>bought up by larger companies).
>
>And in 1995, it wsa pretty easy to sample things at computer shows and 
>even movie festivals.  No, it didnt' mean everyone was online, but that 
>things had changed quite a bit from 1990 or before that.

Having mr Gates discover the Internet sometime during 1994 was also
a help. 

>
>The Montreal Freenet went online in August of 1997, after three years of 
>planning and construction, and failed after four months.  They had decided 
>to go for a big system, having seen Ottawa have growth problems at the 
>beginning, but had to wait for government funding.  In the meantime, the 
>internet had become much more accessible, if still relatively expensive 
>for the time you got.  So the Montreal Freenet had expected a large influx 
>right away, and that never came.  The people who knew about access had 
>already found it elsewhere, leaving people who had little money, or people 
>who didn't really know about the internet yet.  And that latter group was 
>going to take too much effort to convert into users.

And you needed to have capacity and logistics in place, and use whatever
equipment was available at the time. Completely different from these
government funded ISPs that cropped up; with lots of expensive telco-grade
equipment but completely unprepared for the bandwidth boom that was
going to make this equipment obsolete in a few months.

-- mrr

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25 Years: How the Web began Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2015-12-21 15:08 -0800
  Re: 25 Years: How the Web began philo <philo@privacy.net> - 2015-12-22 20:15 -0600
  Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-22 19:24 -0800
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-22 23:13 -0500
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-23 07:47 -0800
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-23 17:12 +0000
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-12-23 12:13 -0600
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-23 10:34 -0800
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Alan Bowler <atbowler@thinkage.ca> - 2016-01-05 13:27 -0500
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-01-05 11:25 -0800
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-01-05 12:34 -0800
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-23 12:48 -0500
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2015-12-23 14:42 -0600
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-23 21:25 +0000
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2015-12-23 18:07 -0600
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-26 21:07 -0800
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-27 02:39 -0600
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-12-27 15:48 +0000
                The Source, was: 25 Years: How the Web began danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> - 2015-12-27 18:19 +0000
                Re: The Source, was: 25 Years: How the Web began Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2015-12-27 12:53 -0800
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-27 10:07 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-02 16:05 -0500
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-01-03 17:17 +1100
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-24 09:41 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2015-12-24 11:06 +0100
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2015-12-23 10:12 -0800
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began tracymnelson@gmail.com - 2015-12-23 12:07 -0800
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2015-12-24 00:39 +0100
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-23 11:37 +0000
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-23 17:18 +0000
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-12-23 13:57 +0000
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Lawrence Statton <lawrence@senguio.mx> - 2015-12-23 09:09 -0600
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2015-12-24 00:55 +0100
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-12-24 13:44 +0000
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-12-25 05:55 +1100
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-12-25 15:08 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-12-26 06:42 +1100
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-24 20:24 -0800
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-24 23:41 -0500
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-24 21:16 -0800
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-25 10:46 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-25 13:43 -0500
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-25 07:48 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Robert Swindells <rjs@fdy2.co.uk> - 2015-12-25 10:33 +0000
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2015-12-25 08:35 +0100
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2015-12-24 00:26 +0100
  Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-23 11:22 +0000
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2015-12-23 11:43 +0000
  Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-27 18:04 -0800
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-28 02:51 +0000
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2015-12-27 22:09 -0800
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-01-03 05:27 +0000
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-01-03 05:30 -0800
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-01-03 14:14 +0000
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-01-03 11:05 -0500
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-01-03 18:08 +0000
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-01-03 22:14 -0600
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2016-01-04 04:40 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-01-04 16:10 -0500
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2016-01-04 21:11 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-01-04 17:15 -0600
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2016-01-05 04:01 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-01-05 04:29 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2016-01-05 05:41 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-01-05 18:46 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-01-05 12:24 -0600
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-01-05 18:57 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2016-01-05 19:09 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-01-05 17:44 -0600
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2016-01-08 19:19 +0000
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2016-01-03 20:34 -0800
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-28 07:54 -0800
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2015-12-28 16:21 +0000
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2015-12-28 12:39 -0800
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-28 13:11 -0800
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2015-12-28 13:35 -0800
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-28 21:43 +0000
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-12-28 15:37 -0600
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-29 04:35 +0000
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2016-01-06 21:25 +0000
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2016-01-06 21:13 +0000
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-06 19:35 -0500
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2016-01-09 21:03 -0800
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-01-07 06:41 +0000
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-01-07 09:02 +0000
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-07 06:41 -0500
                Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2016-01-09 21:06 -0800
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-12-28 04:38 -0400
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock) - 2015-12-28 11:38 +0000
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began cb@elaine.df.lth.se (Christian Brunschen) - 2015-12-28 13:52 +0000
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-28 15:46 +0000
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-12-28 15:40 -0400
      Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-28 16:26 +0000
        Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-12-28 15:46 -0400
          Re: 25 Years: How the Web began hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-28 12:50 -0800
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-12-29 02:56 -0400
              Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-29 07:56 +0000
            Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2016-01-06 21:40 +0000
    Re: 25 Years: How the Web began Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2015-12-28 08:24 -0800

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