tocol suite made during the 1990’s was HTTP, pro-
posed by Berners-Lee in 1989 and implemented by
him at CERN in 1992. This simple protocol allowed
the Internet to support the World Wide Web
(WWW), and the WWW became the most important
application running on the Internet by the end of
the 1990’s. The IP gives all computers on the Inter-
net a 32-bit numeric address, such as 121.10.45.255.
For a variety of reasons, the Internet community
wanted to have a symbolic name for each computer
rather than the 32-bit numeric address. In the early
days of ARPANET, the symbolic-to-numeric name
conversion was handed locally by a hosts file, located
on each computer. The domain name system (DNS)
was proposed as a better solution for the conversion
about 1983, and by 1985 a DNS with several zone
servers had been created. In 1993, the NSF started
privatizing the DNS by assigning its major adminis-
trative functions to private corporations. Since that
time, DNS Internet address registration and mainte-
nance of the Internet address database has been
handled by a number of companies who jointly
maintain thirteen root servers.
A major area of improvement in networking that
led to the explosive growth of the Internet in the
1990’s was the development of high-speed networks
that used fiber-optic cables. Especially important
were the backbone internetworks that provided
support for transfers of data from one part of the
country to another. The increased bandwidth of
the communications networks supporting the Inter-
net has resulted in a number of innovative applica-
tions, including music and video downloads, rich
graphical pages sent over the Web, and telephone
service introduced in 1996 that used voice-over IP
(VoIP).
The improvements in general computer and
communications hardware during the 1990’s pro-
vided a great deal of support for the Internet. Micro-
chip manufacturers increased their chip density
during the 1990’s, and this improved the computers
sending and receiving data, as well as the communi-
cations equipment connecting these computers.
Typical of the companies that experienced dynamic
growth in the 1990’s is Cisco Systems. Founded in
1984, Cisco went public in 1990 with assets of $190
million. In 2000, Cisco was estimated to be worth
more than $500 billion. Cisco originally produced
simple routers and gateways but later marketed a full
range of communications products.
Universal Access The 1990’s marked a time of
greatly improved access to the Internet from home
and the workplace. Microsoft led the way when it in-
cluded a TCP/IP stack as part of the Windows 95 op-
erating system, but all personal computers and
workstations provided TCP/IP support by the end of
the 1990’s. The introduction of the Mosaic Web
browser for the Macintosh and personal computer
(PC) in 1993 and Internet Explorer as part of the
Windows 95 operating system in 1995 made access to
the Web simple. Improvements in hardware used to
access the Internet were even greater than those for
software. For the home user, the 1990’s marked a
time of greatly improved choices for high-speed ac-
cess to the Internet. The 28.8-kilobit modem was in-
troduced in 1994, the 56-kilobit modem in 1996, and
the 1- to 2-megabit asymmetric digital subscriber
line (ADSL) modem in 1998. These provided home
Internet users with a standard telephone line fast ac-
cess to the Internet. For those with cable television,
the cable modem, introduced about 1997, and stan-
dardized with the data over cable service interface
specification (DOCSIS) protocol in 1999, provided
2- to 10-megabit service that was very reliable. Dur-
ing the same time, cell phone users could communi-
cate with their offices either by 56-kilobit modem or
by proprietary cell phone modem. As early as 1995,
some were using satellites to access the Internet, al-
though it was expensive.
In the workplace, high-speed access became com-
monplace in the 1990’s. The 10Base-T standard was
adopted in 1990, and this allowed companies to pro-
vide inexpensive access for their employees, using
large switch-based networks. The first wireless local
area networks (LANs) appeared about 1997, and in
1999 the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standards pro-
cess began. Wireless access allowed employees to ac-
cess the Internet without having to plug into an
Ethernet connector. At home, inexpensive wireless
kits containing access points and connector cards
were in wide use by 2000 and allowed multiple home
computers access to the Internet.Internet Applications A number of important In-
ternet applications were developed during the
1990’s, the most important of which was the World
Wide Web. Berners-Lee implemented a working
WWW system at CERN in 1992. Many improve-
ments were made to the basic ideas of Berners-Lee
during the decade, including the development ofThe Nineties in America Internet 455