[ih] Fwd: Happy 50th to PRnet, ARPAnet, and Internet!

[Frantisek Borsik]

My friend wrote also about Minitel, the Forgotten French Internet, recently:

https://komando1.substack.com/p/minitel-the-forgotten-french-internet

All the best,

Frank

Frantisek (Frank) Borsik


*In loving memory of Dave Täht: *1965-2025

https://libreqos.io/2025/04/01/in-loving-memory-of-dave/


https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantisekborsik

Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp: +421919416714

iMessage, mobile: +420775230885

Skype: casioa5302ca

frantisek.borsik at gmail.com


On Thu, Aug 27, 2026 at 10:12 PM Greg Skinner via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Forwarded for Barbara
>
> > From: Barbara Denny <b_a_denny at yahoo.com>
> > To: Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2026 at 10:55:12 AM PDT
> > Subject: Happy 50th to PRnet, ARPAnet, and Internet!
> >
> > Today is the 5Oth anniversary of  the PRnet and ARPAnet demo using
> TCP/IP!!!
> >
> > Don Nielson provided a writeup to the SRI Alumni Newsletter about the
> event.  He said I could post it here. Unfortunately i had to cut the last
> bit due to mailing list restrictions: a picture of the plaque at Zotts,
> some photos and a diagram.  He also sent me a compendium but it has too
> many photos in the file.
> >
> > barbara
> >
> >
> >
> > 50th Anniversary of the First TCP Demonstration
> >
> > By Don Nielson
> >
> > Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the lifeblood of the Internet. It
> is the protocol, first defined in 1975, that enabled computer networks of
> dissimilar nature to seam together in ways invisible to its end users. That
> transparency and dissimilarity would extend over time to virtually all
> transmission media. It would also cover the world with a new, affordable
> web that would bring digital capability to everyone. Although bringing
> forth the modern Internet involved innumerable far-flung talents, there was
> one place and time where the Internet first saw the light of day—and SRI
> was involved.
> >
> > It was August 27, 1976, and the new DARPA-funded packet radio project,
> the first mobile digital radio network, was linked through the 7-year-old
> wired ARPANET to its only hosts speaking TCP, one each in Boston and Los
> Angeles. The initiating terminal was in the West Bay foothills, and the
> bridge was the first TCP internetworking gateway located at SRI. Both the
> ARPANET and the PRNET had lots of contributors that made the connection
> possible, but SRI was the place of convergence for the PRNET, as it had
> been earlier for the ARPANET. testing had come to the point a real-life
> demonstration.
> >
> > It was Ron Kunzelman, one of the SRI leaders in PRNET development, who
> suggested Rossotti’s (now Alpine Inn, also known to locals as Zott’s), a
> popular watering hole in Portola Valley, west of the Stanford campus. SRI’s
> mobile bread truck van, containing both a packet radio and a TCP-housing
> microprocessor, had radio visibility from Rossotti’s to a PRNET repeater
> node atop the ridge on which also sat the big SRI-Stanford dish. It was one
> radio relay to the gateway and satisfactory for the two networks to work
> fully in tandem.
> >
> > The task chosen for the test was the delivery to DARPA of the monthly
> progress report on the PRNET, a very lengthy transmission. The test/demo
> was successful, and we buttoned up. It was just a slightly more noticeable
> day in SRI research that was promptly forgotten. Fortunately, and with
> little anticipation, I took a few pictures.
> >
> > Almost exactly two decades later, as the digital world and the Internet
> blossomed, the inquiries began to appear around its genesis. One of these
> came to me from the IEEE Spectrum, and I was forced to dig out what I could
> find. In short, it led to that day at Rossotti’s and to a bigger demo that
> also included a satellite link and other gateways.
> >
> > Somewhere along the way, a small bronze plaque appeared on the wall at
> Rossotti’s commemorating that event, later to be replaced by a larger one,
> shown here, placed now on the front of the building by the California
> Historical Society, according to a Rossotti’s manager at a recent event.
> The event saw me taking a few visiting relatives to lunch there, where I
> written story of that day. The aim was also to give the somewhat blustery
> account on the plaque some grounding. For my effort, I am now the proud
> owner of a Rossotti’s cap and not much else, except serendipitous memories.
> 50 years have gone quickly.
> >
>
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