<P> The term `` internet '' was adopted in the first RFC published on the TCP protocol ( RFC 675 : Internet Transmission Control Program , December 1974 ) as an abbreviation of the term internetworking and the two terms were used interchangeably . In general , an internet was any network using TCP / IP . It was around the time when ARPANET was interlinked with NSFNET in the late 1980s , that the term was used as the name of the network , Internet , being the large and global TCP / IP network . </P>
when was the first time the internet was used
around the time when ARPANET was interlinked with NSFNET in the late 1980s