From the Publisher:
A little more than twenty-five years ago, computer networks did not exist anywhere - except in the minds of a handful of computer scientists. In the late 1960s, the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency funded a project to create computer communication among its university-based researchers. The experiment was inspired by J. C. R. Licklider, a brilliant scientist from MIT. At a time when computers were generally regarded as nothing more than giant calculators, Licklider saw their potential as communications devices. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the story of the small group of researchers and engineers whose invention, daring in its day, became the foundation for the Internet. With ARPA's backing, Licklider and others began the quest for a way to connect computers across the country. In 1969, ARPA awarded the contract to build the most integral piece of this network - a computerized switch called the Interface Message Processor, or IMP - to Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), a small Cambridge, Massachusetts, company. A half-dozen engineers at BBN, who called themselves the IMP Guys, knew it was possible to do what larger companies - including AT&T and IBM - had dismissed as impossible. But making computer networking possible required inventing new technologies. Working around the clock, the IMP Guys met a tight deadline, and the first IMP was installed at UCLA nine months after the contract award. A nationwide network called the ARPANET grew from four initial sites. Protocols were developed, and along the way a series of accidental discoveries were made, not the least of which was e-mail. Almost immediately, e-mail became the most popular feature of the Net and the "@" sign became lodged in the iconography of our times. The ARPANET continued to grow, then merged with other computer networks to become today's Internet. In 1990, the ARPANET itself was shut down, fully merged by then with the Internet it had spawned.

Where Wizards Stay up Late: The Origins of the Internet

In the early days of the Arpanet, each specification contained its own
definition of ABNF. This included the email specifications, RFC733 and
then RFC822 which have come to be the common citations for defining
ABNF. The current document separates out that definition, to permit
selective reference. Predictably, it also provides some modifications
and enhancements. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF

A client stores a first set of workspace data, and is coupled via a computer network to a global server. The client may be configured to synchronize portions of the first set of workspace data with the global server, which stores independently modifiable copies of the portions. The global server may also store workspace data which is not downloaded from the client, and thus stores a second set of workspace data. The global server may be configured to identify and authenticate a user seeking global server access from a remote terminal, and is configured to provide access to the first set or to the second set. Further, services may be stored anywhere in the computer network. The global server may be configured to provide the user with access to the services. The system may further include a synchronization-start module at the client site (which may be protected by a firewall) that initiates interconnection and synchronization with the global server when predetermined criteria have been satisfied.

System and method for globally and securely accessing unified information in a computer network

Computer networks are becoming more numerous and more diverse. Collectively, they constitute a worldwide metanetwork.

Notable computer networks

Forensic feature extraction and cross-drive analysis

PREFACE ARPA's Committee on Computer-Aided Human Communication (CAHCOM) wishes to promulgate a standard for the format of ARPA Network text message (mail) headers which will reasonably meet the needs of the various message service subsystems on the Network today. The authors of this document constitute the CAHCOM subcommittee charged with the task of developing this new standard. Essentially, we specify a revision to ARPANET Request for Comments (RFC) 561, "Standardizing Network Mail Headers", and RFC 680, "Message Transmission Protocol". This revision removes and compacts portions of the previous syntax and adds several features to network address specification. In particular, we focus on people and not mailboxes as recipients and allow reference to stored address lists. We expect this syntax to provide sufficient capabilities to meet most users' immediate needs and, therefore, give developers enough breathing room to produce a new mail transmission protocol "properly". We believe that there is enough of a consensus in the Network community in favor of such a standard syntax to make possible its adoption at this time. An earlier draft of this specification was published as RFC #724, "Proposed Official Standard for the Format of ARPA Network Messages" and contained extensive discussion of the background and issues in ARPANET mail standards. This specification was developed over the course of one year, using the ARPANET mail environment, itself, to provide an ongoing forum for discussing the capabilities to be included. More than twenty individuals, from across the country, participated in this discussion and we would like to acknowledge their considerable efforts. The syntax of the standard was originally specified in the Backus-Naur Form (BNF) metalanguage. Ken L. Harrenstien, of SRI International, was responsible for re-coding the BNF into an augmented BNF which compacts the specification and allows increased comprehensibility.

Standard for the format of ARPA network text messages

Proposed Standard for Message Format / ii PREFACE ARPA's Committee on Computer-Aided Human Communication (CAHCOM) wishes to promulgate an official standard for the format of ARPA Network mail headers which will adequately meet the needs of the various message service subsystems on the Network today. The authors of this RFC constitute the CAHCOM subcommittee charged with the task of developing this new standard; this document presents our current thoughts on the matter and a specific proposal. This document is organized as follows: First, we present a history, of the development of what has become known as the ARPA Network "mail" or "message" service, and the issues which we feel are most pressing-problems for which solutions are lacking today, inhibiting the further development of message subsystems. We then present the specification for the new ARPA Network Message Header standard. This is followed by a References section. Essentially, we propose a revision to Request for Comments (RFC) 561, "Standardizing Network Mail Headers", and RFC 680, "Message Transmission Protocol". This revision removes and compacts portions of the previous syntax and adds several features to network address specification. In particular, we focus on people and not mailboxes as recipients and allow reference to stored address lists. We expect this syntax to provide sufficient capabilities to meet most users' immediate needs and, therefore, give developers enough breathing room to produce a new mail transmission protocol "properly". We believe that there is enough of a consensus in the Network community in favor of such a standard syntax to make possible its adoption at this time. We would like to make clear the status of this proposed standard: The CAHCOM Steering Committee has replaced the Message Service Committee as the ARPANET standards-setting organization in the area of message services. It is expected that the proposal of this CAHCOM subcommittee, when in its final form, will be adopted as an ARPANET standard by CAHCOM. In the interests of making this standard the best possible one, we are distributing this proposal as an RFC. Please send any comments and criticisms to any of the authors of this RFC by 15 June 1977. It is planned that the standard will be officially adopted by 1 September 1977, with hosts expected to accept its syntax by 1 January 1978.

D. Crocker

Papers

Standard for the format of ARPA network text messages

Proposed official standard for the format of ARPA Network messages