[ih] Origination date for the Internet

[Bob Hinden]

On Oct 28, 2010, at 1:08 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:

> Bob,
> 
> Bob Hinden wrote:
>> I still have my "I Survived the TCP Transition 1/1/83" red button.
>> 
>> In my view this was the time when the Internet became operational as people starting using it for their day to day work, instead of a set of researchers.  Conception and birth occurred earlier :-)
>>   
> Actually, that raises another interesting question: At what point, prior to 1/1/83, if any, was there a minimal set of networks, gateways, and end systems that were passing IP packets on an ongoing basis - as opposed to being cobbled together to run some experiment or other, and then brought back down?  Can we isolate a date when IP packets started flowing and never stopped?

There was a set of operational gateways from the Arpanet to Satnet to gateways at UCL, RSRE, and NDRE, MIT, SRI, SAC, Ft. Bragg, etc.   There is a picture dated 25 Feb 1982 at:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_in_February_82.jpg

This was started earlier, but I don't have an exact date.

Bob