[inforoots] [List4guides] IMP history adjunct to Dick's email note

[Miya, Eugene]

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1) My attempt while traveling to respond to Dick G. good note failed due to
changes in the NASA email system (talk about ironic) and the CHM listserv.

2) Email was NOT one of the earliest applications on the ARPAnet.  You were
not on the ARPAnet for email, so it is important to keep this in mind.  FTP
and telnet were the first apps.  They have changed very little, since they
started.  Some of the few changes were to accommodate hierarchical file
systems to "change directory" and other similar directory status commands.
Email came later but was not available to every one for administrative and
technical reasons.  It later came what we regard as "the" killer app. The
IMP allowed diverse vendor hardware; ARPAnet was a somewhat more
heterogeneous network than would have other been otherwise vendor or
institutionally possible.  A pretty good reference for the net in that
period is Katie Hafner's Where Wizards Stay Up Late; watch for her NY Times
article about the CHM.

3) The first protocol was NCP, Network Control Protocol/Program.  NCP
differs quite a bit and had quite a few limitations compared to TCP/IP.  You
did not have to know about the IMP, your host computer managed the IMP as a
front-end.  It was packet switched with limited store-and-forward sliding
windows.

4) Jake ran the NIC (Network Information Center) at SRI: Jake knew all.
Very few people knew Jake was female (Elizabeth).  Get to know Jake, she is
one of the most useful references the CHM has to offer.

5) 56.6 Kb/s was good.  While experiments in packet voice, crude graphics
(no color, only calligraphic), and other real time experiments took place in
the early 1970s, the rest of the net functioned without a lot of knowledge.
It was FTP, telnet, and email.

6) You would not believe how hostile some of the ARPAnet's opponents were.
Not to this day at least.  They still exist, but they are much more quiet.
I can answer a few more docent level questions, but the real experts are
still out there (I can point you guys to the still living guys, many in
Katie's book).

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