The development of TCP /IP (Transfer Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) in the 1970s greatly improved the technology which allowed computer data to be more successfully transmitted across networks without danger of lost data disabling communications. Data that was not successfully transmitted to its destination could not be returned to its source and re-transmitted.

TCP and IP also allowed multi-platform interfacing so that information stored on one kind of computer or operating system could be retrieved by another without compatibility problems. Black boxes were developed, which later became known as gateways or routers, and allowed information to be transmitted between various networks, and out of small area networks into the Ethernet. These transfer protocols were intended for the more advanced computer systems of academia and the military, but research groups such as those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology proved that a simpler implementation of TCP was possible for the desktop computer.

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