Final answer:
The predecessor of the internet was the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), a fundamental network that laid the foundation for the development of the internet and the subsequent creation of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee.
Step-by-step explanation:
The predecessor of the internet was the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), which began in 1969. ARPANET was a network of networks that connected government facilities and research universities dedicated to official communications. It played a crucial role in the development of the protocols and technologies that would later become the core of the internet.
With ARPANET's standardization of communication protocols in 1982, the groundwork was laid for the expansion beyond government and academia into a network of interconnected computer networks known as the Internet. The work of Tim Berners-Lee in inventing the World Wide Web further evolved the way information was stored, formatted, and accessed on the Internet.