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  1. #1
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    Jan 2001
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    The History of Web Hosting

    Howdy guys;
    I'm looking for an article, or some good sources pertaining the HISTORY of web hosting. I've been searching and haven't found anything all that useful.

    Yes, I know there always has been a 'host' since the dawn of a network... I am rather looking for information on who, what, when, and how someone decided, "Lets offer an opportunity for a web site to the masses".

    Thanks!
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  2. #2

  3. #3
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  4. #4
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    A few thoughts on this...

    Hi!
    Well..there is tons to find about the different "fathers" of the internet like this found with google:

    http://www.learnedcounsel.com/father.htm#INTRODUCTION

    Clearly...the hosting industry would not have existed had there not been Arpanet..and Tcp/Ip (created in 1973) and the efforts of many others.

    I would mention that the creation of the Mosaic browser by Marc Andreessen and Jon Mittelhauser in 1993 was a milestone in the development of the internet and the hosting business as well.

    I would add the search engines to the list...making websites easier to find. I don't think it would be as big as it is today if it weren't for the search engines making it easier to find things.

    AOL pushed a lot of people on the internet that would not have started using it because they made it easy...and those imfamous free disks and CDs. I think AOL can be credited with at least that...even though Mr. Case spearheaded on of the most, IMHO, imfamous mergers in history.

    One cannot help but mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars of money poured into startups in the "boom" period which did, at least, bring attention to the internet itself...and make it more reliable. Some people lost a lot of money on this...but...let's face it...
    it is because of this boom that brought a lot of people to the internet...and gave us reasons to make it part of our daily lives.

    Uhhh...some lives much more than others, BTW.

    It must be mentioned here that if it were not the advances made in Silicon Valley and elsewhere..our servers would not be as cheap as they are today. This is another thing we have to thank the VC's from Sand Hill Road for.

    I don't think it would be as big as it is today if it weren't for many things...low, reliable ISPs is one of the largest.

    I think it is the monster it is today because of many things...the biggest being the low entry cost to get into the business..starting small...with a reseller account or two...and going from there.

    I remember myself looking to get into this business years ago...but the costs were just too much to deal with...and setup fees were really absurd...all this before you get customer #1. This was back in the days when domains really did cost $60.00/year as well.

    Indeed...a magical time to grow up for a kid who sat down in front of a computer for the first time in 1977 at a Radio Shack in Morganton, N.C.

    It should be pointed out that many, many people made contributions to this. The first commercial operating system...long before unca Bill by a man named Gary Killdall of Digital Research.
    It was called CPM.

    Many people think Bill Gates created DOS. He did not. He bought the rights to a clone of CPM called ZipDOS and renamed it DOS for IBM's first PC.

    The father of the Macintosh just pasted away recently...Jeff Raskin...and there was a wonderful article about him on theregsiter.co.uk.

    It is here:
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02...skin_obituary/

    This is a wonderful site...I've been visiting it for years.

    I think it should be remembered...there were no hosting companies at first. Web space was included as part of what you paid a ISP.
    Even before AOL...there was Prodigy and Compuserve...and they did hosting as well as Dialup access to the internet.

    Another interesting story just came to mind...and this may be interesting to find an article on this. When the industry was young....there were very few hosts...most were actually BBS's..that grew into hosts or ISPs. You should find some interesting info on io.com and a man by the name of Steve Jackson. My second email account was on io.com years ago.

    paydirt:
    http://www.farcaster.com/sterling/afterword.htm

    Well...this gives you at least a few points and names to do some searches on.

    Good luck.

    Bryon
    Last edited by bryonhost1; 03-17-2005 at 07:29 PM.

  5. #5
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    Washington, USA
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    Re: A few thoughts on this...

    Originally posted by bryonhost1

    Many people think Bill Gates created DOS. He did not. He bought the rights to a clone of CPM called ZipDOS and renamed it DOS for IBM's first PC.
    I believe you have that part incorrect, I'm fairly certain that Microsoft bought right to an OS some guys out of Seattle based computer store created, called QDOS for "Quick and Dirty Operating System". Microsoft modified it quite a bit and released it with the name MSDOS.
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  6. #6
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    Hi!
    Probably so..I'm not sure where I came up with zipdos. Us old people sometimes get things mixed up.

    Anyways...The Steve Jackson thing brought back fond memories...ah.
    When the 'net was young....<giggle>

    Unca Bill (oh..I'm sorry...Sir Bill) did create BASIC. Another interesting thing Killdall did was a programming language called Logo...which was quite interesting.

    One name I did leave out...that is prolly even more critical to our Industry...Linus Tovalds. I can remember wanting to buy a copy of Unix from SCO for personal use...It was a couple of grand even back then...pre-Linux.

    I still use Lynx..I have for many, many years. ..and will continue to use it.

    Bryon
    #!/usr/bin/perl

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
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    Originally posted by bryonhost1
    Unca Bill (oh..I'm sorry...Sir Bill) did create BASIC.
    BASIC was created in 1964 by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. Paul Allen and Bill Gates authored the 1975 versions for the Altair, but they didn't create the language itself.

    As for hosting, there have been a few threads on here in the past about the oldest Web hosting companies. Before the Web, there were a few ISPs which offered FTP hosting. I used to use rahul.net for that purpose, for example. I see they still offer it.

    Kevin

  8. #8
    I believe Compuserve was one of the earliest ftp hosts. Circa 1980
    Bill
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  9. #9
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    Dec 2004
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    Ive heard of some old school hosts im not sure of there names though
    Ill google for some info

  10. #10
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    Dec 2004
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    Butler,TN
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    Hi!
    Ah! Altair...Commodore 64....Timex Sinclair...who could have ever dreamed it would have evolved into what we have today?

    Both Steves assembling Apple II's in their living room...the HP guys in the garage...again...what a great time to grow up and witness the birth of a completely new industry.

    I miss "Upside" magazine. I have saved many articles on ZIP disks...and hope to get around to getting permission to put them back on the web where they belong.

    I miss "Byte" magazine as well. Oh well. Back to work

    Bryon

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