Source: University of Utah Node 4 History
source confidence: Medium status: Useful updated 2026-08-11
Summary
The University of Utah UIT "Node 4" article explains the name of the university's IT news channel by recounting the University's role as the fourth ARPANET node.
Useful Claims
- The article says the University of Utah Computer Science Department became the fourth node of ARPANET in 1969.
- It describes ARPANET as the world's first packet-switching computer network and a precursor of today's internet.
- It links the claim to the University's institutional memory and points readers to Marriott Library's ARPANET project.
- The article is useful for the local Utah claim but is explicitly archived and may have stale external links.
Verbatim
"The short answer is: In 1969, the University of Utah’s Computer Science Department became the fourth node of ARPANET , the world's first packet-switching computer network and precursor of today’s internet." — Article opening
"For a more detailed lifecycle of ARPANET, check out Marriott Library’s ARPANET Timeline Project (1969-1980)." — Article conclusion
Reliability Notes
This is an official University of Utah history article and is good evidence for the institution's own public framing of the Node 4 claim. It is a retrospective secondary source, not a contemporaneous record of the node going live; primary ARPA, BBN, or participating-university archival documents would carry the historical claim more strongly.