In this lesson: Explain the functions and basic requirements of a computer network.

Identify the origins of computer networking and the creation of the Internet.

Networking Problems

There were some significant problems with setting up networks that allowed computers to communicate with each other.

At the time, there was very little standardization across systems. Different computers used different operating systems, and they used different systems for storing and retrieving data. These differences made it difficult for computers to communicate with each other because the lack of standardized protocols meant that one computer could not easily interpret data from another computer.