Top 5 Facts: Internet myths

1. It’s nuclear attack proof
The internet protocol was designed to be highly fault tolerant. But that’s because early network hardware was very unreliable – not because of the threat of nuclear war.

2 Tim Berners-Lee made links
He invented the world wide web and the first browser program, but the hyperlink was invented by Ted Nelson as part of Project Xanadu at Harvard, 30 years earlier.

3. Social networks are new
In the Eighties, CompuServe, FidoNet and CIX bulletin board systems already allowed users on dial-up modems to chat online, leave messages and contribute to discussions.

4. Addresses are scarce
The IPv4 protocol only allows 4 billion unique addresses, but IPv6 is already rolling out and this will provide 10,000 trillion trillion addresses for every person on Earth!

5. The internet is free
It isn’t and never has been. The internet is a very expensive collection of hardware paid for by governments, corporations and, ultimately, all of us.