The Western Military Establishment required a secure, rugged computer network that could span large distances and did not rely on any form of central control for its operation.

Great Britain set up the first network based on these principals in the 1960s. At about the same time the US Department of Defence's Advanced Research Projects Agency supplied funding for a much bigger project, Arpanet. Arpanet was to became the kernel of the Internet.

Arpanet allowed members of the research community to share computing resources over long distances. Researchers quickly extended Arpanet into something much more useful, a place to share information, collaborate on projects and gossip. News and e-mail became part of the network.

As the 1970s progressed, other computer networks linked up with Arpanet. All that was required to connect networks of diverse computers was an adherence to the protocol of the Internet, TCP/IP.

TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and is the 'language' that allows all computers, no matter what operating system they work on internally, to 'talk' to each other over the network.

By the 1980s, the Internet had broadened far beyond its government and military origins, with educational organisations, community organisations and commercial organisations all attaching themselves onto this ramshackle but robust network of networks.

Growth escalated with the emergence of the World Wide Web. This 'user friendly' face of the Net captured the imagination of the general public.