Appendix A

Appendix A discussed the history of the Internet, showing how a network of computers evolved from research projects into the current network everybody uses today. I was honestly surprised how much government and academia have contributed to our Internet infrastructure. This also helps explain my answer in our class discussion, because I always thought the Internet was available for public use sometime in the late 1990s, which is also around the time I first started using it. Prior to reading this appendix, I had no idea that DARPA had been developing and using Internet technology for decades for national security reasons before most people ever had access to it or knew what the Internet was.
I use the Internet daily for school, gaming, shopping, and streaming videos. This appendix made me realize how dependent my life is on something I never really questioned before, especially where it came from, who helped develop it, or how it works. It also made me appreciate how much the World Wide Web has simplified things like browsing, schoolwork, research, and entertainment, because things like HTML, hyperlinks, and the evolution of web browsers make it very easy to cycle through information without having to think about how everything works behind the scenes.

Finishing Appendix A also made me appreciate how much networking happens in the background that I take for granted on a daily basis. Things like IP addresses, DNS, packet routing, and core Internet protocols (such as FTP or TCP/IP) all work together seamlessly to let me connect devices, find websites by simply typing a site’s name, or plug my gaming consoles into a network switch with a Cat 5e cable and have them connect to the Internet without any extra setup or configuration. Overall, this appendix gave me a lot to think about, and I look forward to exploring more of these concepts in the chapters to come.

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