The internet has become integral to our lives, but it wasn’t always this way. The internet is a relatively recent invention, and its development was long and complex. So to understand how we got to where we are today, let’s look at how the internet started.

In the early 1960s, computers were giant machines used mainly by government agencies and universities for research. At that time, there was no concept of connecting these computers in what would eventually be called “networks” or “the Internet.” However, during this period, several key developments occurred that laid down some of the foundations for what would later become known as The Internet:

1) ARPANET: This was one of the first computer networks created by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1969, with four nodes linking UCLA (University Of California Los Angeles), Stanford Research Institute, University Of Utah and UCSB (University Of California Santa Barbara). It enabled data to be shared between different locations without physically transporting tapes or punch cards from one place to another.

2) NCP Protocol: The Network Control Protocol (NCP) became available in 1972, allowing multiple hosts on different networks worldwide to communicate with each other using packet-switching technology developed by Paul Baran at RAND Corporation.

3 ) TCP/IP protocol: By 1974, Transmission Control Protocol /Internet Protocol (TCP/IP ) had been developed, allowing communication over any network regardless architecture being used underneath it, thus creating true interoperability across all systems connected via a network.

4 ) Domain Name System: In 1984 DNS system was introduced, allowing more accessible access to websites rather than typing the IP address into browser windows – e.g., www google com instead 216.58.33.226 so users could remember website names more easily.

5 ) World Wide Web: Finally, 1989 saw the introduction World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee CERN Switzerland – a combination of HTML language HTTP protocol made web pages accessible to anyone with access computer connected online …
These five steps marked major milestones towards establishing the modern-day’ internet’ as known today – global interconnected web information resources services accessed through various devices such laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.