[ih] "The First Router" on Jeopardy

[Alex McKenzie]

I've stayed out of the discussion but listened with interest.  In fact, I have no clear recollection of when the terminology switched.  But I suspect it happened around the time the first CIX (Commercial Internet Exchange) agreement was reached.  Before that there was a "backbone" network (first ARPAnet and then NSFnet).  Packets went from your network to the backbone, across the backbone, and then to the destination network.  But after the CIX agreement there became a meaningful choice of routes, and the gateways had to start figuring out what the set of available routes was and choose one.  I understand this is an oversimplification of the internet structure, but I think it is a meaningful one.
Cheers,Alex