§The Internet started in 1969 as the ARPAnet. Funded by the U.S. government, the ARPAnet became a series of high-speed links between major
supercomputer sites and educational and research
institutions worldwide, although mostly in the U.S. A major part of
its backbone was the National Science Foundation's NFSNet. Along the way, it became known as the
"Internet" or simply "the Net." By the 1990s, so many networks had
become part of it and so much traffic was not educational or
pure research that it became obvious that the Internet was on its way to becoming a commercial venture.
