Web hosting began in the year 1990 when Tim Berners Lee wrote the first web program. Many other programs were written thereafter, and many companies came up with their own web hosting service which made possible the present scenario, where there is tremendous growth in the arena of web hosting. It is also interesting to note that prior to 1991, nothing called web hosting was known to the humankind. This invariably means that there was no concept of the internet in 1991 as well. But if you want to find out the history of web hosting today, you would have to take recourse of the internet. Such has been its development! Technology has developed a lot, and the internet is the biggest development after the radio and the television. It is again worthwhile to note that internet is powered by more than 50 million websites, which form its core base. Ask yourself, what would you do online if there were no websites at all?

A look back at earlier days

It was in 1962 and through the eyes of J.C.R. Licklider that the genesis of the internet began at MIT. A whole host of articles were created by Licklider which shared his ideas about the Galactic Network which described computers being linked to each other, providing information resources that everyone could share. The Computer Science program at MIT was also known as the Advanced Research Project Agency [ARPA] and this was where Licklider was scheduled to visit. Whilst there, he would tell of his ideas and try to convince people there was a demand for this form of networking computers.

It is always interesting to be aware of the political background at the time and ARPA was developed at the same time as NASA. After the Russians launched Sputnik, their artificial satellite, there was a huge need for the Americans to keep pace with their Soviet counterparts. The first form of computer networking came through packet switching, which enabled data to be transferred as tiny packages through telephone lines which was a huge improvement over the previous form of utilizing circuit lines that were solid. A great benefit was that this connection was busy only when information was passing through and this helped to free up room to allow the computer to undertake additional tasks. Paul Baran invented the Hot Potato network design when he was trying to create a package that would ensure telecommunication data to be passed in the event of a nuclear war. This design was to play a major role in the development of the internet.

The progress of the internet continued apace and was benefited by computers being able to communicate with each other. It is fair to say that 1991 is a key year in internet history and although it was already around, its development was going to get much bigger. The National Science Foundation [NSF] played a massive role in this when they judged that there should be a lowering of the commercial limits placed on the web. This changed the internet and brought many new possibilities and advantages. E-commerce developed from this point and the rush of companies looking to be ready for the boom period was signing up in droves. It was near the end of 1991 when staff at CERN brought the WWW, World Wide Web to users and this system used HTML, otherwise known as Hyper Text Markup Language. HMTL was also the brainchild of Tim Berner Lee and he used the same technique to create URL, the uniform resource locator. That may just seem like the last in a long line of abbreviations but it has quickly became the frequently used term for finding the addresses of websites.

Although its early use may have been mainly benefited by computer and technologically minded people, the internet was soon to spread to the general public, greatly assisted by its simplistic methods. Of course, as the internet grew, complexities followed but it was offering many new benefits and the business world was not slow in predicting a positive future nor was it slow in cashing in on it.

Hosting a web site was not cheap in the formative years but the price is now affordable, even if understanding everything may be a bit tricky for some users. One of the business developments has come about by firms renting server space and this has grown from humble beginnings. Nowadays, it is fair to say that there are a similar number of companies offering internet access as there are providing services for hosting web sites. As computer and technology has grown, so has the internet. Business too has dramatically changed and more use of computers and web hosts has brought about these changes.

Today there are over 35,000 businesses that play host to in excess of 100 websites through their server. This industry is growing due to healthy competition and in the time it takes you to read this article, there are probably hundreds more companies who have joined up. The WWW has had many programs but the first was a hypertext editor which made its debut in the NeXt machine. This progress was brought about by Nicola Pellow, a student, who brought about the line mode browser. Its main purpose was to provide a platform for discussion by people looking to research certain areas and this was made possible by the server publishing details of HTTP, HTML and UDI. Further progress was enabled when internet browsers such as Mosaic or Cello were created which allowed people to operate and search on machines which were not the NeXT model. The next notable landmark year was 1994 which heralded the start of the World Wide Consortium when firms came together to develop similar practices for web usage and which became the basis for a world of web sites.

Earlier versions had seen the use of a number of TCP/IP features which allowed users to network but at the time, it was not known what the potential for this setup was going to be. Recent IETF meetings have viewed these TCP/IET protocols with more praise and acceptance than previously and have acknowledged the advances since then. To enable this expansion, tools were needed and how best to enable this was the basis for much debate. As networking was a key issue, products to enable this were developed and this allowed users to be able to connect to the internet. At the time, this was the edge of what commercial possibilities stretched to but as more people got online in huge numbers, it was vital for people to have this service and the internet easily captured the interest of many ordinary people. The advances made by the internet were down to huge technological improvements.

This is why many Information Technology firms and trend setters, such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM and many more have got into the internet industry and provides services, products and tools to better the service of web applications. People dont want to think about too much on the internet, they mainly just want to get to a specific site and this is the way that web servers have been created to perform.

In addition to tools and services, there has been a requirement for the makers of hardware to improve the size of their power servers to ensure the growth of the web hosting industry continues. There is no doubt that the way the internet is used today is drastically different from its origins. It may have started off with Personal Computers onto the client server and then to the Peer to Peer [P2P] type network. There have been abundance of different features that came to life thanks to the internet and these include passing of information and data, communicating via email, being able to log on remotely and many other useful functions. It seems that if you want it you can have it but also bear in mind that the internet is still rapidly developing. With television and videos on the internet being the latest features, it may be hard to predict what is coming next on the internet but whatever it is, it should be interesting.

About the author: Tired of hyped up web hosting companies that don’t deliver? Compare uptime ratings and read real user reviews for the best hosting companies at www.webhostingmadness.com.

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