What was the internet before the world wide web?

-the world wide web was made in 1991, but the people could access the internet before that. also what were the first cell phones like?Before the World Wide Web, the Internet was things like Usenet (much like forums are now and still around), e-mail, mailing lists, and data-retrieval tools like Gopher and ARCHIE. There were gateways between BBS mail systems (FIDOnet) and the Internet. The Internet was dominated by large computer companies, educational institutions, and government agencies. By the way, Al Gore really DID play a role in opening up the Internet to the public.



The first cell phones looked a LOT like Maxwell Smart's shoe phone--they were about the same size and shape--and cost a LOT of money. Look at an old "Wall Street" still:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3jIwz9Q4c6c/Sw鈥?/a>The earliest protocols I think were telnet and ftp, maybe email.

Email involved complicated routing and forwarding tables between internet, DECnet, AOL, Lotus, bitnet etc. and weird-looking addresses with ! and % characters e.g. Timbl%VXCRNA.CERN@CERNVAX.Bitnet

There was IRC quite early, still used somewhat, also finger, later gopher.

Archie was a search engine for looking in ftp archives (usually for software)

usenet (news) served as forums and for things like Y!A



My first cellphone (still on a shelf somewhere) was a large thing like a landline phone with a radio built into the base and a 5" antenna. It ran on 12V in a car, or from a lead-acid gel cell. Probably weighed about 6lbs with battery.
Early internet = The blank space between Al Gore's ears.

Early cell phones = Two soup cans connected using a piece of string.



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