Internet Access It would be helpful to provide a brief historical summary of the Internet before jumping into the different means of accessing "The Net". The Internet was developed primarily by Vinton Cerf, an American computer scientist, in 1973 as a part of a United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency project managed by American Engineer, Robert Kahn. In 1984, the project was turned over to the private sector and to government research and scientific agencies for further development. In 1993, the Internet was turned over to the public and by early 1995 access was available in over 180 countries