INTERNET TIME LINE

P> 1986The National Science Foundation establishes five supercomputing centers to provide high-computing power for all, creating NSFNET.

1988Internet worm burrows through the Internet, affecting 6,000 of the 60,000 hosts on the Internet.

DARPA forms CERT to respond to the needs exhibited during the Morris worm incident.

1989Number of hosts breaks 100,000.

1992 The Internet Society, an international organization to help develop the Internet, is founded in Reston, Va.

1992 Tim Berners-Lee develops the World Wide Web.

1994 America Online, Vienna, Va., hits 500,000 subscribers (it now has 5 million).

Internet celebrates its 25th anniversary.

The Clinton administration issues "Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure," which addresses copyright and other Internet issues for the first time.

The first Internet phone product goes on the market, allowing on-line users to talk to each other over their computers

1995 Cable modems, which transport information much faster than traditional modems, start to become a big industry.

Previously funded by the National Science Foundation, the Internet backbone is privatized.

Congress begins a series of hearings on "the future of money," one of the first steps in regulating electronic commerce.

1996AT&ampT joins the Internet fray, offering five free hours a month of Internet access to its long distance customers. MCI follows with a similar offer.

Stock prices of Internet access providers UUNET Technologies Inc., Fairfax, Va., PSINet Inc., Herndon, Va., and San Jose, Calif.-based Netcom plummet after AT&ampT's announcement.