It was on Jan. 1, 1983, that the 400 or so computers hooked to what was then called ARPANET had to switch to a communications protocol called TCP/IP, said Vint Cerf, the protocol's co-inventor.
It was TCP/IP that allowed multiple networks to coexist and permitted applications like the World Wide Web to develop and thrive. In other words, it made the Internet what it is today.
"This is a major milestone," Cerf said. "I consider the January 1983 date to be the real rollout of [the] Internet."
The protocol didn't permit non-ARPANET computers to join in, the way America Online and private corporate networks can today. But it affirmed packet switching -- the idea that data could be chopped into small packets and reassembled at the destination, giving the Internet its versatility.
Some, however, consider the Internet's age to be a more mature 33.
On Sept. 2, 1969, two computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, linked by a 15-foot cable, sent data back and forth, showing that the Internet could work.
The Cost of Spam
All those junk e-mail messages may promise instant wealth, but they can be quite painful to the bottom line.
A study to be released Monday attempts to quantify the annual cost of spam: $8.9 billion for U.S. corporations, $2.5 billion for European businesses and another $500 million for U.S. and European service providers.
Marten Nelson, an analyst at Ferris Research, said though most spam can be deleted in one second, occasionally someone is duped into clicking the message. It also takes time to track down legitimate messages mistakenly tossed by inaccurate spam filters.
Figuring it takes 4.4 seconds on average to deal with a message, the messages add up to $4 billion in lost productivity for U.S. businesses each year.
Another $3.7 billion comes from companies having to buy more powerful servers and more bandwidth as well as divert staff time. The rest is attributable to companies providing help-desk support to annoyed users.
The costs are less in Europe because spam isn't as big of a problem, Nelson said. But in future calculations, Nelson said he may have to add the costs of wireless spam, a growing problem in Europe as text messaging gets more popular.
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