Not-so-small beginnings

The internet is something that we take for granted today, something that many of us even myself have addictions for it! We always expect lightning fast speeds, scoff when the video pauses as it buffers and whine continuously like mammoths when there isn't 3G connection. This is a familiar scene when my friends and I are in the food court at school where connections reach an all-time low.

Sounds kind of unbelievable, but the internet was first started off by the US Army. It was used to connect the wide range of computers that they had, quite similar to that of an ethernet in a typical office today. It was mainly used for military purposes. However as they progressed, it was soon made available for the average consumer. The internet became usable to you and me as the World Wide Web when an Englishman, Tim Berners Lee created HTML coding and with the working with others from CERN, enabled the World Wide Web to be used as an application on the internet and connect users from across the world. Since then, there has been many evolutions and 'upgrades' to the internet to make surfing more pleasant to our insatiable hunger expectations for more services online.

This gave rise to ISPs, Internet Service Providers like Singtel sprouting all over the world, offering consumers the ability to connect to the rest of the world. From the consumer's standpoint, connecting to the internet has changed leaps and bounds. With the rise of the ISPs also came big steps of modernization such as the laying of the transatlantic cables.


In fact, those cables then were copper cables which has a much smaller bandwidth and so much easier to lose quality as compared to the fibre optics that is now available.

I am a 90s kid and I must say i've pretty much experienced a great deal on how the internet has progressed! Here is my life story of my experience with the internet, from young till now. :)

First there was dial-up. Everyone got panicky whenever the phone rang as once you pick up the phone, your line gets cut off. And i remember using that ADSL 'stingray' Alcatel modem to connect my computer to the internet.

This, my friends can be your best and worst friend. I remember the times it would beep, and BSSSSSHHHHHHHT pretty much like a comic book strip whenever i tried to connect to the internet. and when our home phone rings, i'll shout "DON'T PICK UP THE PHONE" in those days, we had to connect directly to the phone landline RJ11 cable. Back then, i was so into MapleStory and I would always panic whenever someone called as i was in the middle of the game. 

Soon after, we converted from ADSL to a WLAN Linksys router that allowed us to connect multiple computers to the Internet with the help of trusty cat 5 RJ45 cables. WLAN was the days when facebook and youtube birthed forth, sparking a new trend of how people use the internet. 

This also allowed us to connect our mobile devices and laptops to the WiFi network available which was quite an eye-opener as this was the first time our devices went wireless and this also gave us a back-up option to connect to the internet when our cabled connection did not seem to work. Also then, we had a Mio modem to organize our internet connection with our telephone line, allowing us to have a peace of mind when phone calls came in. :)

Having a techie family also means that i get to enjoy the faster internet speeds that are available as my parents always desire the fastest internet speeds available. As such, Mum asked me about switching to fibre optics, with it boasting gigabit connection speeds! Soon after, I had to revamp my house network map to accommodate the new lightning fast internet speeds! After wiring up our house with the new and fragile fibre optics, my whole family was ecstatic! But still lots of work had to be done. 

TIP TIP TIP 

Many people tend to complain why they are still experiencing similar connection speeds to their usual Linksys router that they have at home while being already on fibre optics. Well that is because the router and cables they are using are unable to support the fast speeds that the fibre optics are capable of. I went to Sim Lim Square to buy a ton of cat 6 RJ45 cables along with a new high performance linksys router, an ASUS fibre optic router and a fibre optic modem. This configuration allowed me to rig my house up to 2 floors of lightning fast internet access and strong wifi signals around the house! 

As the internet begins to evolve, people even do have blogs based on flash instead of HTML coding as web browsers are now more high tech thanks to increased bandwidths hence being able to support a wider range of more intensive data-chewing services. From the evolution of copper cables and complaining buffering times, to fibre optics and downloading a full movie under 5 minutes, there is much for us to explore and take advantage of - provided we are willing to learn how to fully utilize the technology that we have.