Internet 1997

From CSI Wiki Farm

• 2001st RFC: "Internet Official Protocol Standards"
• 71,618 mailing lists registered at Liszt, a mailing list directory
• IEEE releases 802.11 (Wi-fi Standard).
• Internet2 consortium formally established. The Internet2 website can be found here.
• First attempt was made at the IPv6 provider-based address format
• On July 8, 1997, Internet traffic records are broken as the NASA website broadcasts images taken by Pathfinder on Mars. The broadcast generates 46 million hits in one day.
  

  

  Pathfinder on Mars

• The term “weblog” is coined. It’s later shortened to “blog.”
• VocalTec founded ITXC Corporation (Internet Telephony Exchange Carrier) a US based wholesale provider of Internet-based phone calls. The ITXC Voice over IP (VoIP) network was powered by the VocalTec technology.
• The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to handle administration and registration of IP numbers to the geographical areas currently handled by Network Solutions (InterNIC), starting March 1998
• CA*net II launched in June to provide Canada's next generation Internet using ATM/SONET
• Juniper Networks receives $6 Million in funding from AT&T and the Anschutz Corporation. It also received another $14 million from a variety of venture capitalists. It garnered financial support of over $40 million of Northern Telecom, 3Com, UUNET Technologies, a subsidiary of WorldCom, the Siemens AG/Newbridge Networks alliance; and Ericsson.
• Bay Networks acquires ISOTRO Network Management, Inc. (April) DNS and DHCP technologies and Rapid City Communications (June) Gigabit Ethernet switching and routing technology.
• In protest of the DNS monopoly, AlterNIC's owner, Eugene Kashpureff, hacks DNS so users going to www.internic.net end up at www.alternic.net
• Domain name business.com sold for US$150,000
• Early in the morning of 17 July, human error at Network Solutions causes the DNS table for .com and .net domains to become corrupted, making millions of systems unreachable
• Longest hostname registered with InterNIC: CHALLENGER.MED.SYNAPSE.UAH.UALBERTA.CA
• 101,803 Name Servers in whois database
• Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd. (TSSL) is formed when Tyco acquires AT&T Submarine Systems Inc. (SSI). TSSL is one of the world's leading suppliers of submarine cable systems. Two others are KDD-SCS of Japan and Alcatel Submarine Networks of France.
• IBM's Deep Blue, a 32-node IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer, defeated World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, in the first known instance of a computer vanquishing the world champion chess player in tournament-style competition.
• America Online launches AOL Japan, passes 10 million members in the USA and 1 million international.
• Global steel consumption 700 million tons.
• Mikrotik creates the RouterOS software system that provides extensive stability, controls, and flexibility for all kinds of data interfaces and routing.
• Mercury Communications Ltd (cf 1981) becomes part of Cable & Wireless Communications
• Bay Networks acquired Rapid City.
• Huawei won its first overseas contract, providing fixed-line network products to Hong Kong company Hutchison Whampoa. Later, Huawei launched its wireless GSM-based products and eventually expanded to offer CDMA and UMTS.
• Lucent acquired Prominet.
• Motorola introduces the M-Core 32-bit embedded processor architecture.
• The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set up for regulation of commercial communication services in India. It delivers its first judgement against the incumbent operator DoT.
• December 11, the District Court entered a preliminary injuction banning Microsoft to tie the Internet Explorer to Windows. The Justice Department believed that the 1995 decree banned the tying of the IE browser to Windows and complained to the court that Microsoft was in contempt. Microsoft files an appeal of this injunction. (cf 1998)
• December 10, creator of the Linux operating system, Linus Torvalds, receives the 1997 Nokia Foundation Award worth FIM 50,000.
• December, Swedish datacom software developer Trio Information Systems buys Swedish interactive voice response system developer Objecta Elektronik och Data AB for the purpose of furthering computer telephony integration. The price was 25 MSEK.
• November 20, America Online Studios acquires Extreme Fans, Inc.
• November, IBM introduces the Aptiva E16, its first PC priced under $1000.
  

  

  The IBM Aptiva on left next to a MAC Book Pro on right

• November, Fiber Link Across/Around the Globe (FLAG) cable is installed, passing 12 countries (including Shanghai, China) between United Kingdom and Japan, a distance of 27,000 km. It carries 2 x 5 Gbps.
• October, NTT Worldwide Network Corporation (NTT-WN) is established as the NTT group's first international facilities-based (Type I) telecommunications company.
• October 8, Nortel and Norweb Communications announce a new technology which allows data to be transferred over power lines.
• September, start of the Slashdot website, "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."
• September 8, America Online announces it intends to sell ANS Communications to WorldCom in exchange from CompuServe Online Services and $175 million in cash. The deal also involves Bertlesmann AG to jointly operate CompuServe Europe.
• September 8, introduction of the Intel Mobile Pentium processor, operating at 200 and 233 MHz, having 4.5 million transistors, based on a 0.25 micron process, 64-bit bus, packaged in a 320-pin capsule, intended for use in mobile PCs and mini-notebooks.
• August, Compaq acquires Tandem Computer Incorporated, creating a global computer solutions company.
• August 12, the Northern Light web search engine opens. The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• July 14, Be ships the first public, commercial release of BeOS for PowerPC, BeOS Preview Release.
  

  

  The BeOS Desktop
• June 26, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Unwired Planet unite to create an open common Wireless Applications Protocol. See the WAP Forum web site for details. Version 1.0 of the WAP specifications are published on April 30th, 1998, at which time the forum has 37 members.
• June, Forbes listing of the world's richest people has (1) Sultan Bolkiah, Brunei $38 billion, (2) Bill Gates, Microsoft $36 billion, (3) Walton Family, Walmart $27 billion, and (4) Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway $23 billion.
• June, 3Com Corporation acquires modem manufacturer U.S. Robotics for $ 7.3 billion (including Palm Computing, Inc.).
• June, an Ericsson phone (fiction model) is featured in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies.
• June, Compaq introduces the TFT 500, flat-panel monitor.
• June 1, Ask Jeeves goes into full service after having been in beta since mid-April 1997. The company Jeeves Solutions is based in Emeryville, California.
• May 7, introduction of the Intel Pentium II microprocessor, operating at 300 MHz, having a 64 bit bus, 7.5 million transistors, and being able to address 64 GB of memory.
• April, plans are announced for a cable system to link China directly to the USA, based on a 30,000 km cable loop with four fibre pairs, operating with 8-way WDM to give a total capacity of 80 Mbps, and it is intended to have it in service by the end of 1999. Several telecoms vendors are involved in the project, including NTT, the dominant Japanese domestic supplier, in its first foray into this area.
• April 15, first issue of RLG DigiNews, an academic online magazine on digital libraries published by the Research Libraries Group (RLG).
• April, in Santa Clara, CA, the Sixth International World Wide Web Conference. One of the most popular topics was XML, as presented by Tim Bray and Jon Bosak.
• April, Compaq acquires Microcom to broaden communications product offerings.
• March, in San Diego, CA, the First XML Conference is arranged by the Graphic Communications Association.
• February, Compaq announces its new Presario 2000, sub-$1000 series.
• January, Be discontinues the BeBox to concentrate solely on BeOS.
• January, Compaq unveils the Presario 1060ES, Compaq's first portable designed specifically for education.
• RFC 2100: The Naming of Hosts
• Top 10 Domains by Host #: com, edu, net, jp, uk, de, us, au, ca, mil
• Country domains registered: Falkland Islands (FK), East Timor (TP), R of Congo (CG), Christmas Island (CX), Gambia (GM), Guinea-Bissau (GW), Haiti (HT), Iraq (IQ), Libya (LY), Malawi (MW), Martinique (MQ), Montserrat (MS), Myanmar (MM), French Reunion Island (RE), Seychelles (SC), Sierra Leone (SL), Somalia (SO), Sudan (SD), Tajikistan (TJ), Turkmenistan (TM), Turks and Caicos Islands (TC), British Virgin Islands (VG), Heard and McDonald Islands (HM), French Southern Territories (TF), British Indian Ocean Territory (IO), Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (SJ), St Pierre and Miquelon (PM), St Helena (SH), South Georgia/Sandwich Islands (GS), Sao Tome and Principe (ST), Ascension Island (AC), US Minor Outlying Islands (UM), Mayotte (YT), Wallis and Futuna Islands (WF), Tokelau Islands (TK), Chad Republic (TD), Afghanistan (AF), Cocos Island (CC), Bouvet Island (BV), Liberia (LR), American Samoa (AS), Niue (NU), Equatorial New Guinea (GQ), Bhutan (BT), Pitcairn Island (PN), Palau (PW), DR of Congo (CD)
• Hacks of the Year: Indonesian Govt (19 Jan, 10 Feb, 24 Apr, 30 Jun, 22 Nov), NASA (5 Mar), UK Conservative Party (27 Apr), Spice Girls (14 Nov)
• Technologies of the Year: Push, Multicasting
• Emerging Technologies: Push, Streaming Media [:twc:]