<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>Yes, There were packet networks not connected to the ARPAnet. Two in particular were: Cyclades/Cigale in France, and the European Informatics Network with nodes in 6 of the Common Market countries. There _were_ some interconnections between the public packet networks (Telenet in the USA, Bell Canada, and the networks of the PTTs in western Europe and Japan), but these interconnections were extremely limited experiments for the most part. CSNET (funded by the NSF) used both ARPAnet and Telenet for transport but only provided user-level (eg mail) interconnection and only for CSNET members.<br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div
dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Ofer Inbar <cos@aaaaa.org><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Ian Peter <ian.peter@ianpeter.com> <br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> internet-history@postel.org <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, July 23, 2012 6:41 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [ih] FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the Internet?"<br> </font> </div> <br>
Ian Peter <<a ymailto="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com" href="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com">ian.peter@ianpeter.com</a>> wrote:<br>> The writer of the LA Times article might have done well if he had checked<br>> with his friend Bob Taylor. He writes.<br>> <br>> "Bob Taylor is a friend of mine, and I think I can say without fear of<br>> contradiction that he fully endorses the idea as a point of personal pride<br>> that the government-funded ARPANet was very much the precursor of the<br>> Internet as we know it today"<br>> <br>> Well that's not what Bob Taylor has written elsewhere. To quote Bob,<br>> <br>> "I believe the first internet was created at Xerox PARC, circa '75, when we<br>> connected, via PUP, the Ethernet with the ARPAnet. PUP (PARC Universal<br>> Protocol) was instrumental later in defining TCP."<br><br>That supports the assertion that the ARPANet was the precursor of the<br>Internet, so I see no
contradiction.<br><br>Note that "the first internet" per se wouldn't necessarily have to be<br>a precursor of "The Internet". Were there any packet switched<br>internets* in those days that did not connect to the ARPANet? While<br>those would not have had a direct lineage to The Internet, it'd still<br>be interesting to know about them. I don't recall hearing of any.<br><br>* by which I mean: interconnections of administratively separate<br> networks in geographically separate locations with different<br> underlying network types - administratively separate is key<br><br> -- Cos<br><br><br> </div> </div> </div></body></html>