1988

George Bush elected US President

  • FUNET acquires Cisco Systems multiprotocol routers (with DECNET and IP network protocols routed by the same equipment) instead of bridges.
  • The joint Nordic NORDUnet program approves the X.EARN project's plan for a joint Nordic academic multiprotocol network and decides to apply jointly for an Internet link to the NSFNET at a time when elsewhere in Europe public administrations and universities were being strongly pressured into going over to the OSI protocol and X.25 networks. The X.EARN plan also took other needs into account, even though it was optimised for Internet use. By the end of 1988, the NORDUnet network was in operation, and permission had been given to link it to the NSFNET, which was directly connected to the ARPANET.
  • On November 2, Robert Morris' Internet Worm program spreads through the Internet, automatically copying itself. The NORDUnet's connection was not yet ready for routing, so the Nordic countries were spared this problem. But, as a consequence, people begin to pay more attention to Internet security.
  • The basic NSFNET network is updated to use T1 (1.5Mbit/s) lines. Jarkko Oikarinen uses IBM mainframes in the EARN network to develop the RELAY software that served as the model for the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) real-time discussion system. Because he makes it for the Unix operating system popular on the Internet, it soon spreads widely.