On 26/02/2020 10:28, Stewart Bryant wrote:
On 26 Feb 2020, at 09:56, tom petch <daedulus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 26/02/2020 09:35, Stewart Bryant wrote:
Before my time, but was IPv4 designed before or after the Internet was released from the government to the public?
Way before, if I understand your question aright.
I see the start of the public internet as April, 1995, when commercial activity, over and above applying for NSF grants, was permitted. This enabled ISPs as we now know them.
IPv4? I date to RFC791, September 1981 although much of the technology was fixed before then.
Tom Petch
My question was semi-rhetorical because I did not remember the exact timing, but I think this conforms my suspicion that the key technical decisions behind the Internet were made whilst it was under government control.
Stewart
I do not know. The internet was under the control of the NSF at that
time and I was a detached observer, promoting a rival technogy. Yes the
US government was in ultimate control but reading the RFC, which start
in April 1969, and seeing posts from the authors of those days about
their work, my impression always was of considerable freedom even when
the US government was in charge. Also, a key date, which I cannot
recall, was the decision of the US DoD to promote TCP/IP as an interim
solution while awaiting the arrival of OSI, a decision that, for me,
gave TCP/IP the impetus to succeed which otherwise it might never have
got. As I recall, that led to the government funding of the BSD 4
implementation which I see as critical to the protocol taking off.
Tom Petch
- Stewart
