Friday, October 30 2009, 07 PM ← →

VLADIVOSTOK, October 30, vladivostoktimes.com The first open computer network is 40. On the evening of October 29, 1969 the first data travelled between two nodes of the ARPANET in the USA. As the legend goes this symbols were “lo” – the first letters of “login”. The "l" and the "o" transmitted without problem but then the system crashed. They were able to do the full “login” about an hour later.

It was sent by student programmer Charley KLINE and supervised by Professor Leonard KLEINROCK, a well-known scientist, the author of packet switching theory. There were 500 km between the receiving hardware.

However, ARPANET – wasn’t the first global computer network. To the moment of the first data transmission American-Canadian NORAD - North American Aerospace Defense Command has been already operated. Long before the start of NORAD exploitation, the USSR’s experimental wireless PRO network was constructed. It consisted of some computers of various capacity, including the mobile platforms, connected to the network by radio links.

So, the ARPANET’s achievement is that they’ve created the first open network for the communication of a wide range of people – scientist and engineers at first, than for ordinary men.