h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

True, the article is very condensed, but there is something that I left out that could really do with being in it, which is the fact that the Internet (or the DARPA) was a MESH network, meaning every computer was connected to every other, which is what gave the thing its' reliability. (of course, now that there are several million computers on the internet, connecting _every_ computer to every other is impracticable, but the servers are connected to lots of other servers. :-p)

Can a Sub correct this... please?

- Njan.

More accurately, the routers (called IMPS) were connected to each other, and then the computers at the site were connected to the IMP through a server that interfaced between the DARPANet protocal, and the local protocal. At the time, however the computer systems mostly consisted of timeshared supercomputers with lots of terminals rather than a network of workstations like it is done today.

I could keep going, but I think what I'm trying to get at is that the article describes the major contribution of DARPA, but doesn't do it in so much detail that you would quit reading, like you probably have done in the case of this post.

Sssh! This is a non-technical post... you'll get me babbling for hours if you say anythng like that.

Btw... although most of the networks at the time _were_ time-shared, DARPA wasn't. It was comprised of lots of workstations... (ok, so they might have been supecomputers, all of them, but since they were all of a similar spec, they count as super computers. :-p)

-Njan.

Don't hold your breath about the update... currently, there isn't a concrete system - that I'm aware of - for making minor updates to articles... but, don't worry, your forum post'll hang around until someone imporant wanders past and at that point the relevant info will go in .

26199, The Eternal Optimist