ome precedent in the earlier timesharing systems operated by IBM and other companies and universities. Of particular relevance were the services offered in the 1960s by GE and Tymeshare which allowed remote dial in access to computers. One difference between these early systems, which connected terminals to remote hosts and packet switching networks is that timesharing networks generally offered a client/server relationship whereas packet switched networks were more peer to peer oriented (Hardy, 1994).
The Rand Corporation, a think tank that was commissioned by the Air Force to consider the problem of communication in case of a nuclear attach, came up with the idea of packet switching networks to avoid the problem of single outage points (Zakon, 1996). Within the 1962 Rand Corporation report, authored by Paul Baren, Baren recommends the need for a national public utility to transport computer data, much in the way that a telephone system transports voice data (Hauben, 1993). Baren ask
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