The Two Letters That Began a Network
At 10:30 p.m. Pacific time on October 29, 1969, a message began traveling from a computer at the University of California, Los Angeles, to one at Stanford Research Institute. The intended message was short: LOGIN. It became even shorter when the system crashed after transmitting only the first two letters, LO.
That interrupted attempt was an early test of ARPANET, a network that connected computers at different research institutions. The crash might make the event sound like a failure, but the two letters showed that information could travel between distant computers on the new network. Later that night, the researchers succeeded in completing the login.
Why connect computers?
In the 1960s, computers were expensive machines that often filled large rooms. Researchers used them to perform calculations and run programs, but access to a particular computer and its resources was usually limited to people at or near its location.
Connecting computers promised a way to share resources across distances. A researcher at one institution might be able to use a computer at another without physically traveling there. A network could also help researchers exchange information, though the first ARPANET users did not have the websites and apps people use today.
- institutions:
- Organizations established for a particular purpose, such as research or education.
- resources:
- Things available to help accomplish a task.
- transmitting:
- Sending something from one place to another.
- interrupted:
- Stopped before something was finished.
- recipient:
- A person or system that receives something.
- reconstruct:
- To put something back together.
- independent:
- Separate and able to operate on its own.
- milestone:
- An important event marking progress.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why was the interrupted LO message still a sign of progress?
- 2How could connecting computers help researchers in the 1960s?
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About this explanatory article passage for Middle School
“The Two Letters That Began a Network” is a explanatory article reading passage about The beginnings of networked computing, written for Middle School. It takes about 6 minutes to read (837 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.