Although the Internet came into existence with a Military basis back in the 1970s , it became immensely popular only in the 1990s. It was literally brought to our homes by Microsoft Windows 95 , which had good OS support for the internet. There was a skeletal interface in Windows 3.1, but Internet was not too popular. To us individuals, internet access was restricted from within Universities or Corporate LANs, where there was a dedicated "leased line", bringing in Network traffic. 



Soon Dial-Up Networking came into the fray. This was much slower, but then, you did not require an expensive and unaffordable leased line to bring in internet traffic to our homes or firms. This is still the most common form of internet in many nations, but the US , Europe and parts of China are getting out of Dial-Up networking to higher speed internet via DSL or Cable.