The Internet has had a relatively brief, but explosive history so far. It grew out of an experiment begun in the 1960's by the U.S. Department of Defense. The DoD wanted to create a computer network that would continue to function in the event of a disaster, such as a nuclear war. If part of the network were damaged or destroyed, the rest of the system still had to work. That network was ARPANET, …showed first 75 words of 245 total…

…showed last 75 words of 245 total…began to build their own networks, which they linked to NSFNET. As commercial firms and other regional network providers have taken over the operation of the major Internet arteries, NSF has withdrawn from the backbone business. NSF also coordinated a service called InterNIC, which registered all addresses on the Internet so that data could be routed to the right system. This service has now been taken over by Network Solutions, Inc., in cooperation with NSF.