Interface Message Processors linking computers

ARPANET Quiz: The First Message and the Birth of the Internet

This ARPANET quiz goes back to 1969, when two computers in California exchanged the first letters of a new network. Play an interactive set of 10 questions on ARPA, UCLA and SRI, the LO message, IMPs, packet switching, the first four nodes, Ray Tomlinson's email, TCP/IP and the network's retirement.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Funder
Which US agency funded ARPANET?
Date
In which year was the first ARPANET message sent?
From
From which university was the first message sent?
To
Where was the first message received?
LO
What did the first message actually say?
Packets
Which technique breaks data into small pieces?
IMP
What were IMPs?
Nodes
Which university was among the first four nodes?
Email
Who sent the first network email using the @ sign?
TCP
When did ARPANET switch to TCP/IP?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which US agency funded ARPANET?
Answer: ARPA of the Defense Department
ARPA later became DARPA.
Q2: In which year was the first ARPANET message sent?
Answer: 1969
It was sent on 29 October.
Q3: From which university was the first message sent?
Answer: UCLA
Leonard Kleinrock's lab sent it.
Q4: Where was the first message received?
Answer: Stanford Research Institute
SRI was the second node.
Q5: What did the first message actually say?
Answer: LO
The system crashed after two letters.
Q6: Which technique breaks data into small pieces?
Answer: Packet switching
Each packet finds its own route.
Q7: What were IMPs?
Answer: Interface Message Processors linking computers
BBN built them.
Q8: Which university was among the first four nodes?
Answer: University of Utah
UC Santa Barbara was another.
Q9: Who sent the first network email using the @ sign?
Answer: Ray Tomlinson
It happened in 1971.
Q10: When did ARPANET switch to TCP/IP?
Answer: 1 January 1983
It is called flag day.

Arpanet Quiz – The First Message and the Birth of the Internet

ARPANET was funded by ARPA, part of the US Defense Department, to link research computers. It used packet switching, which breaks data into small pieces that travel separately and are put back together.

On 29 October 1969, a student in Leonard Kleinrock's lab at UCLA tried to log in to a computer at the Stanford Research Institute. The system crashed after the letters LO, the first message on the network.

By the end of 1969 the network linked UCLA, SRI, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. Ray Tomlinson sent network email in 1971, ARPANET switched to TCP/IP on 1 January 1983, and it was retired in 1990.

What This Quiz Teaches

Tech fans will enjoy these questions.

Who funded ARPANET
What the first message said
How packet switching works
Which places were linked
How email and TCP/IP arrived

Did You Know?

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn designed TCP/IP.
Paul Baran and Donald Davies developed packet switching ideas.
BBN built the network's routers.
ARPANET grew to hundreds of hosts.
The full LOGIN worked about an hour later.