Beginning of the Internet Age - Portola Valley, California - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

In 1965, a method of sending information between computers known as packet-switching was developed. In 1969, the first “node-to-node” communication between two computers at Stanford and UCLA occurred over the ARPAnet. In the 1970s Vinton Cerf, recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet” began developing TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol) with co-inventor Bob Kahn. Messages sent using TCP are the foundation of all Internet and Web communication today.

From a Wired article on Bob Kahn:

On August 27, 1976, a delivery van that belonged to the Stanford Research Institute — one of the research organizations attached to the ARPAnet — was sitting at a former stage coach stop somewhere between San Francisco and Monterrey, California. Since the previous year, the van — typically referred to as a “bread truck” — had served as a mobile node on a packet radio network that covered the area, but that day, for the first time, it used TCP/IP to send packets across both the wireless network and the ARPAnet.

A plaque hangs on a wall just inside the front door at that former stage coach stop - Zot’s or Risotto’s, today known as the Alpine Inn. It reads.

BEGINNING OF THE INTERNET AGE On August 27, 1976, scientists from SRI International celebrated the successful completion of tests by sending an electronic message from a computer set up at a picnic table behind the Alpine Inn. The message was sent via a radio network to SRI and on through a second network, the ARPANET, to Boston. This event marked the beginning of the Internet Age.

Group that erected the marker: SRI - Stanford Research International URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: 3915 Alpine Road Portola Valley, California USA 94028

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