# What is the oldest website on the Internet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074 "2000-11-28T19:56:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Uniball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Uniball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniball)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/1 "2000-11-28T19:56:27Z")
In fact, I want to know what was the FIRST website, and also the oldest STILL ONLINE (I think the very first is not online anymore). ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/2 "2000-11-28T21:08:47Z")
I’m no Internet historian, but Tim Berners Lee (The inventor of the WWW) and Robert Cailliau (Wrote the first browser/editor) both worked at CERN. [http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/ACHIEVEMENTS/web.html](http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/ACHIEVEMENTS/web.html) So one could argue that [http://www.cern.ch](http://www.cern.ch) would have been the first website. ---
**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/3 "2000-11-28T21:11:38Z")
Uniball, I think it’s a wrong question: a web (or a net) is impossible with ONE site. As I recall, the Net was started as an association af several (12 or so) university and research computers, UCal, Upenn, the Petagon, among them. I cold be mistaken, though. ---
**Author:** ![parsnip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parsnip/32/4564_2.png) [@parsnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parsnip)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/4 "2000-11-28T21:22:45Z")
[http://www.algore.org](http://www.algore.org) ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/5 "2000-11-28T21:24:19Z")
**peace** , don’t confuse The Internet with The World Wide Web. The Internet existed well before The WWW was invented. So, the network was in place before any website could be built. Now watch some retro-geek come along and make us both look like fools. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/6 "2000-11-28T21:25:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by parsnip \* > \*\*[http://www.algore.org](http://www.algore.org) \*\* Smile when you say that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/7 "2000-11-28T21:31:25Z")
It’s not the first, but [http://www.satan.com](http://www.satan.com) has been on the WWW as long as I have. It still sucks. ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/8 "2000-11-28T21:43:07Z")
I asked this question a while ago. **Dragwyr** pointed me to [a site](http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/) that had the answer: \*\* > [@](#): > > Between the summers of 1991 and 1994, the load on the first Web server (“info.cern.ch”) rose steadily by a factor of 10 every year. > \*\* Not a very exciting answer, is it, **Uniball**? The rest of the thread wanders, but it does get more interesting… ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/9 "2000-11-28T21:46:30Z")
It probably still counts… however, info.cern.ch is just a redirect page to [http://webservices.web.cern.ch/WebServices/](http://webservices.web.cern.ch/WebServices/) these days. ---
**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/10 "2000-11-28T21:55:01Z")
Shiva, I know that the web is only a part of the Internet (does the balance has a name? and what does it include?). Anyway, he asked about “website” on “the Internet”. “website” is a site on the web. What’s the name for the site on the Net? Netsite? There must be a real webgeek, sorry netgeek, around. ---
**Author:** ![Uniball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Uniball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniball)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/11 "2000-11-28T21:58:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sdimbert \* > \*\* > Not a very exciting answer, is it, **Uniball**? > \*\* Well, it’s a correct answer, it doesn’t need to be exciting. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/12 "2000-11-28T22:03:38Z")
> [@](#): > > What’s the name for the site on the Net? addresses, or maybe net address is what I have always heard them called. Somebody might know a fancier term, but I haven’t heard one. ---
**Author:** ![MinkMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minkman/32/19170_2.png) [@MinkMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinkMan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/13 "2000-11-28T22:16:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by peace \* > [BWhat’s the name for the site on the Net? Netsite? > There must be a real webgeek, sorry netgeek, around. \*\* The best techspeak term for a generic computer on the Internet is “host”. If you wanted to know what the first host on the Internet was, the your original comment makes a bit of sense. The network that eventually became the Internet was called ARPANET. Back then, each host had to be hooked up to a specially designed computer called an IMP (Interface Message Processor). The IMPs knew how to talk to each other and to the hosts on the other side. (Think of them as the predecesor of todays routers and switches) The first host on the ARPANET was at UCLA hooked up to its IMP on August 30th 1969. The second (at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) was functional on 1 October 1969. The first message between the two host was on 29 October 1969 when Charley Kline at UCLA tried to login to the computer at Stanford. He was trying to type the command “LOGIN”. The network crashed after he typed the “G”. So it is fair to call October 29, 1969 the birthday of the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/14 "2000-11-28T22:27:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MinkMan \* > \*\*So it is fair to call October 29, 1969 the birthday of the Internet. \*\* Good info, and true enough, but that doesn’t address the OP asking about the first _Website_. This would be a site with a URL starting with _[http://WWW](http://WWW)_. Since Tim Berners Lee didn’t invent the Web until 1990 it would have to be after that date. **peace** , your email, ftp, newsgroups, ICQ, etc. are examples of information exchange on the Internet but not on the [http://www](http://www). Now who was it that said “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/15 "2000-11-28T22:29:28Z")
Stupid parsing… I should have spelled out World Wide Web when I listed the examples for peace instead of just typing WWW. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/16 "2000-11-28T23:34:00Z")
[http://www.algore.org](http://www.algore.org) Close. Want to know why? Love Story was based on Al. That’s right, the guy who wrote Love Story was a friend of Al & based in on him. If [http://www.algore.org](http://www.algore.org) was around when Love Story hit, it would surely be one of the oldest. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2000, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/17 "2000-11-29T00:09:42Z")
handy, everyone is now dumber for reading that post. I’d disagree with Shiva, I can see no reason why DNS resolution would be needed for a site to apply for the “oldest website”. As such I would imagine that the first website would begin with perhaps an IP# such as [http://124.34.245.255](http://124.34.245.255) . I can see no reason to add the http://www.-extension as part of the criteria. That said, its beyond my scope, but I would challenge someone to justify why http servers would be a necessity of an early website. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2000, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/18 "2000-11-29T00:11:27Z")
Ah, crap. Damn parsing. Both those links are intended to be raw text. ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2000, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/19 "2000-11-29T00:23:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Omniscient \* > \*\*handy, everyone is now dumber for reading that post. > > I’d disagree with Shiva, I can see no reason why DNS resolution would be needed for a site to apply for the “oldest website”. As such I would imagine that the first website would begin with perhaps an IP# such as [http://124.34.245.255](http://124.34.245.255) . I can see no reason to add the http://www.-extension as part of the criteria. > > That said, its beyond my scope, but I would challenge someone to justify why http servers would be a necessity of an early website. \*\* You wouldn’t need name resolution, but you would need a http server. DNS was around before the first web site, though, although it isn’t strictly necessary. Arjuna34 ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2000, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074/20 "2000-11-29T00:33:47Z")
Parse Monster got you too, eh Omniscient? 😉 The way I understand it is that the Internet and stuff like Telnet, ftp, and email existed prior to 1990. HTTP, HTML and the prefix WWW in URLs (all part of what defines the Web and a Web page) are inventions circa 1990 by Tim Berners Lee and Robert Cailliau . [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-website-on-the-internet/43074.md?page=2)