The Birth of the Internet: ARPANET to TCP/IP | History of the Internet Episode 1

Ryan Haylett

Alright, so picture this: the year is 1945. World War II has just ended, and the world is, uh, kind of pulling itself out of—well, maybe the most chaotic period in modern history. But at the same time, you've got this new tension brewing between global superpowers. It's sort of like, uh, a tug-of-war, but with nuclear weapons and ideologies instead of ropes, right?

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and everyone’s racing—like, literally racing—to see who can outdo the other in technology and military power.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And this—this is where it gets really interesting, at least for us tech nerds, anyway. Because, during this time, governments started pouring massive—just massive amounts of resources into science and technology. wow We're talking huge projects to advance communication, computation, all these things that would eventually, you know, lay the groundwork for what we call the internet today.

Dave Rowley

Right, and—and it wasn’t just governments either. You had universities, research labs, even private companies getting involved. It’s, uh, kind of wild when you think about it—it was like this... massive collaboration born out of necessity, right?

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And that’s what we’re diving into today. We’re going back to those early post-war years, through the Cold War lens, to explore how a mix of competition, cooperation, and, let’s face it, a little paranoia, kickstarted a technological revolution.

Dave Rowley

And, I mean, some of it is honestly mind-blowing. right It’s not just a story about computers or wires, it’s—it’s people solving problems in ways that, at the time, probably seemed a little... well, futuristic.

Ryan Haylett

Totally. So, in this episode, we’re gonna trace that history—from those early research projects to the development of ARPANET and eventually the protocols that became the backbone of the internet. It’s, uh, a journey through innovation, mistakes, and, you know, some very human moments too.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and if you’ve ever wondered how we got from, uh, vacuum tubes and punch cards to streaming cat videos... mhm well, it all starts here.

Ryan Haylett

Alright, so, by the late 1960s, you’ve got all this tension and innovation we talked about, and—here’s the cool part—a lot of this tech development starts getting funneled into communication. You know, specifically how to share data between machines, even when those machines are thousands of miles apart.

Dave Rowley

Right, and—and I mean, the problem wasn’t just distance. It was also, uh, reliability. Like, if one connection failed, the whole system couldn’t just crash. It needed to, uh, route itself—find another path. Think about how critical that idea is today, but back then? It was—it was like science fiction.

Ryan Haylett

Totally. And this is where ARPANET comes in. It was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency—ARPA—which was like the U.S. government's response to, well, what they saw as a tech gap with the Soviets. Their goal? Build a network that could survive—even if parts of it got knocked out.

Dave Rowley

And that’s where that idea of "packet switching" comes in. mhm Instead of sending everything as one giant file, data is broken into smaller chunks—packets—that can take different routes and get reassembled on the other side.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And, uh, surprisingly, it worked. This was 1969—long before modern computers—and they got it up and running. The first message sent between two ARPANET nodes? "LOG." They were trying to type "LOGIN," but the system crashed right after "LOG."

Dave Rowley

Yeah, but still! Even that tiny word—just "LOG"—was, like, the birth of modern communication networks. Think about it: networks talking to each other, bypassing physical limitations. right It’s, uh, kind of insane how foundational that was.

Ryan Haylett

And the cool thing about ARPANET wasn’t just the tech—it was how it connected people. Researchers, developers—it brought them together in a way that had never happened before. Collaboration, innovation—it all took off from there.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and—and, honestly, it’s what makes ARPANET so fascinating. It wasn’t just solving a tech problem—it was solving a human problem, right? How to share knowledge, faster and smarter. And, man, that’s—well, that’s what the internet still does today, basically.

Ryan Haylett

So, we've talked about the tech itself—ARPANET, packet switching—all of that. But honestly, none of it would've happened without the people behind the scenes. I mean, these were, uh, some of the brightest minds of their time, right?

Dave Rowley

Oh, totally. And—and one name that, like, always comes up is J.C.R. Licklider. He’s often called the "father of the internet." mhm He had this crazy vision of a network where computers could, uh, communicate with each other and share resources. I mean, this was in the 1960s, when computers were room-sized calculators!

Ryan Haylett

Right, and it wasn’t just vision—it was funding too. Licklider pushed for ARPA to prioritize networking. Without him, ARPANET might not have even gotten off the ground. right He didn’t build it himself, but he lit the spark that got everyone else moving.

Dave Rowley

And then you’ve got people like, uh, Leonard Kleinrock. His work on queuing theory—figuring out how to manage data traffic—was huge for packet switching.

Ryan Haylett

Yeah, Kleinrock laid the theoretical foundation, right? exactly His research gave ARPANET designers a roadmap for how to actually make this system work in the real world.

Dave Rowley

Oh, and—and we can’t forget about people like Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, who developed TCP/IP protocols. That—that’s what made all these networks talk to each other. Otherwise, you’d just have a bunch of isolated systems.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. TCP/IP basically standardized communication, letting, you know, any computer join the network. And it’s still the backbone of the internet today. If you’re sending a message right now—or streaming this podcast—you’re using their work.

Dave Rowley

Which is just wild to think about. Like, their goal wasn’t even to invent the internet as we know it—they were solving problems for researchers who needed to share data. wow But their solutions ended up changing... well, everything.

Ryan Haylett

And that’s what makes this story so compelling. These weren’t just engineers—they were dreamers, problem-solvers, collaborators. Their work wasn't about personal gain—it was about connection, about creating something bigger than themselves.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and—and it shows, right? Like, even today, the internet relies on a lot of that same spirit: open collaboration, shared knowledge, and solving problems together. It all started with these figures, their ideas, and their drive to connect the world.

Ryan Haylett

So, by the late '70s and early '80s, ARPANET was no longer a single experiment, right? It was growing—adding connections between universities, research labs, even some government sites. But with all this growth, the network started running into some... well, growing pains.

Dave Rowley

Right, like, the protocols they had used to get ARPANET off the ground—like NCP—they just weren’t cutting it anymore. They couldn’t scale, you know, to handle all the traffic and, uh, the complexity of connecting more diverse systems.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And it was Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn who came up with the big game-changer, right? TCP/IP protocols. That’s Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, for anyone keeping score at home.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and—and the brilliance of TCP/IP is that it lets any network talk to any other network, no matter how different they are. It’s like, uh, a universal translator but for computers.

Ryan Haylett

Totally. And January 1st, 1983, gets marked as "flag day" for the internet because that’s when ARPANET officially switched over to TCP/IP. Every machine on the network had to update, or else they'd basically be, you know, left out of the party.

Dave Rowley

Which is crazy to think about, right? Like, the idea of telling everyone to flip a switch on the same day. wow But it worked, and that—that moment is what really gave us the internet as we know it today.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And from there, ARPANET expanded beyond its original research roots. Universities, corporations, even other networks started linking up. It wasn’t just a research tool anymore—it was becoming... well, a global system.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and—and that’s when you see the shift in focus from just connecting machines to connecting people. Email took off, for one—suddenly, communication wasn’t just fast—it was instant. Like, mind-blowing for the time.

Ryan Haylett

Totally. And it wasn’t long before the term "internet" started popping up to describe this new, interconnected world. It wasn’t just ARPANET anymore—it was something much bigger.

Dave Rowley

And, honestly, that’s what makes this transition so important. It took something that started as a military project and turned it into, well, a foundation for global collaboration. true Everyone, everywhere, could be a part of it.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. ARPANET to internet isn’t just a technical story—it’s a story about connection. mhm And it’s one that set the stage for every technological breakthrough we’ve seen online since then.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and when you think about it, we’re still building on that same DNA today. Internet protocols, global connectivity—it all comes back to these foundational moments and decisions.

Ryan Haylett

So, by the time we get to the 1980s, the internet—well, okay, ARPANET at the time—had grown way bigger than anyone ever really expected. You had more machines, more networks, more users.

Dave Rowley

Right, and—and all of that growth came with... uh, some pretty big headaches. I mean, back then, if you wanted to connect to another machine, you had to know its specific address—a string of numbers that, honestly, wasn’t the easiest to remember.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And for anyone unfamiliar with what Dave’s getting at, we’re talking about IP addresses. They’re like a phone number for every computer on the network. But unlike phone numbers, which you might scribble in a notebook—or, you know, save on your phone—there were so many, like, nobody could realistically keep track.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and—and to make it even worse, the network was growing so fast that these address lists—literally, text files being passed around wild—kept going out of date. It was chaos.

Ryan Haylett

Totally. And that’s where DNS—the Domain Name System—comes in. It’s simple but brilliant. Instead of having to memorize long numbers, you could just type in a domain name. Like, "Modularity Hosting.com".

Dave Rowley

Right, and—and it’s incredible how it works. DNS acts like, um, like a giant phone book—or maybe more like a directory assistance. You type in something like "modularity.us," and DNS translates that into the exact IP address the system needs to find the server hosting the site.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And behind the scenes, it’s all distributed. Instead of one central phone book for the internet—which would just be... insane—it uses a network of servers that all work together to share information.

Dave Rowley

And—and here’s the thing that, like, blows my mind: DNS doesn’t just make the internet easier to use—it’s what makes it usable at all. Without it, finding any specific site would be like, uh, looking for a needle in an infinitely expanding haystack.

Ryan Haylett

Totally. It’s one of those pieces you don’t really think about day-to-day. But without it? The modern internet, the one we rely on, probably wouldn’t exist in the way it does now.

Dave Rowley

You’re right—it’s one of those technologies that’s practically invisible to the user, but absolutely vital. It’s what keeps everything—from email to e-commerce—running smoothly, even as the web keeps getting bigger and more complex.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. DNS brought order to what was quickly becoming digital chaos. It’s efficient, scalable, and, honestly, it’s one of the unsung heroes of the internet. But what’s even cooler? It hasn’t just lasted—it’s evolved with us.

Ryan Haylett

So, here we are. We've taken this journey through the birth of the internet—from the Cold War urgency that kickstarted ARPANET to the development of protocols and systems that literally changed... well, everything.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, it’s—it’s almost overwhelming to think about, right? I mean, what started as this, like, really focused research project has become the backbone of modern life. Communication, education, business—none of it would be anything like it is today without these early breakthroughs.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And what's so striking is that the internet wasn’t invented by a single person or even a single team. It’s the story of collaboration—governments, researchers, engineers, visionaries—all working together to solve problems. right And I think that spirit of collaboration is still a huge part of its DNA.

Dave Rowley

Right, and—and that’s what makes it so unique. Like, if you think about it, the internet isn’t any one thing. It’s a collection of ideas, protocols, and technologies, all working in concert. yeah It’s... modular, you know?

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And, honestly, the internet’s, uh, legacy isn’t just in the technology—it’s in how it’s empowered people. right It’s created a platform where anyone—anywhere—can share knowledge, connect, innovate, and even, you know, challenge the status quo.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and—and that’s, like, a big deal, right? ‘Cause when you take a step back, the internet isn’t just wires and code. It’s—it’s about people. It’s about bringing them together in ways that—well—would’ve seemed impossible not that long ago.

Ryan Haylett

Totally. But it’s also not perfect. I mean, we've seen firsthand how the internet has brought countless opportunities, but it’s also brought challenges—security concerns, misinformation, digital divides. mhm Those are, uh, the new problems we’ve gotta tackle moving forward.

Dave Rowley

Right—like, those technical and ethical debates are, kind of, this new chapter, right? And the solutions are gonna come from the same place they always have: people working together, innovating, and adapting. It sure doesn’t hurt to have some lessons from the past to guide us.

Ryan Haylett

Exactly. And that’s what makes understanding the internet’s origin so valuable. It reminds us that great things don’t happen overnight. They’re the result of creativity, persistence, and, honestly, a little bit of trial-and-error.

Dave Rowley

Yeah, and—and if there’s one thing I hope we take away, it’s just how connected we all are—technologically, sure, but also in terms of collaboration and creativity. ah That spirit is still alive today, and it’s, like, a big reason why we keep pushing forward.

Ryan Haylett

Just remember: the internet wasn’t just invented—it was built, step by step, by people who believed in the power of connection. And that legacy? That’s something we’re all a part of, every time we log on.

Dave Rowley

In our next episode, we'll explore how Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN in 1989, conceived and developed the World Wide Web. We'll delve into how his creation of HTML, HTTP, and the first web browser fundamentally changed the way we access and share information globally.

Ryan Haylett

From the first web page served on the open internet to the rapid growth of the web community, we'll examine how Berners-Lee's vision of a universal, open, and free web shaped our modern digital landscape.

Dave Rowley

Before we sign off, if you're looking to navigate the ever-evolving digital world for your business, visit modularity.us for a free consultation on your company's digital needs. Our team of experts can help you leverage the latest web technologies to drive your business forward. Until next time, keep exploring the fascinating history of our connected world.