Was it really only 25 years ago.

Dutch_12078 wrote:
ARPANET didn't become known as the public Internet until Al Gore's "High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991" was signed by President George H. W. Bush and led to the creation of the National Information Infrastructure.

You say that as if it's true. It isn't.

See RFCs 675, 753, 759, 760, 766, 774, 777, etc., all referencing internet 10 years before Al's "invention." And if it's big-I Internet you're referring to, RFC901 (June 1984): "This RFC identifies the documents specifying the official protocols used in the Internet." And, it was all public (although primarily educational institutions), even if not commercial.

All of the foundational protocols for the Internet (IP, TCP, UDP, DNS, DHCP, FTP, SMTP, POP, RIP, OSPF, BGP, etc.) were well established long before 1991. Heck, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet (RFC 1118) was written in 1989.