ARPAnet

|  | Information Research Services | Updated: 19 August 1997

|  |  |  |  | In 1969, the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) began to construct a resource sharing computer network among its contractors. This network became known as the ARPAnet, a wildly successful wide-area packet switching network that later evolved into the Internet. By 1970, the initial four-node configuration was complete consisting of UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford Research Institute and the University of Utah. From these four sites, the network expanded to thirteen by January 1971 and twenty-three by April 1972. By the time that DIGITAL joined as the first computer company in 1977, there were approximately 60 nodes in operation.