With such a system in place large sections of the country could be nuked and messages could still get through. Gradually, the Internet had gone from a military pipeline to a communications tool for scientists. As more scholars came online, the administration of the system transferred from ARPA to the National Science Foundation. Years later, businesses began using the Internet and the administrative responsibilities were once again transferred. The speed of the Internet has changed the way people receive information.
Internet usage is at an all time high.
Almost 100 million U.S. adults are now going online every month, according to New York-based Mediamark Research. That's half of American adults and a 27 percent increase over 1999 in the number who surf the Web. There also appears to be a continuing gender shift in the number of American adults going online. In early 2000, Mediamark reported the milestone that women for the first time ever accounted for half of the online adult population. There are several ways to access the Internet.