The term "internet" was originally used to describe any network that connected two or more computer networks to each other. Actually, it was called an "internetwork."
In theory, any network of networks is an internet.
For example, if the five computers in your office are connected to a network of computers at a local university, then that is an internet--a network
between networks.
However, when people talk about "the Internet" they are usually referring to the internet that spans the globe, and that connects individuals, businesses, universities, governments, countries, and continents.
The reason that this internet--"the Internet"--has become so large is that it utilizes a particularly adaptable kind of software called TCP/IP. TCP/IP controls how computers communicate with each other, and it allows any kind of computer to "talk" to any other kind. This flexibility is what has allowed "the Internet" to get so big: anyone can hook up to it.
As an Internet user, you have become a member of the first truly planet-wide community, and you are part of a great experiment in nearly instantaneous communication in words, pictures, sounds, and video. Here you can find more information and entertainment than you could possibly absorb in a lifetime.
Via the Internet you can make friends, do business, research hobbies or interests, influence your Congressman, and many other things.
The next sections will give you the technical information and inside advice necessary to fully utilize the Internet.
• How Does the Internet Work?
A network is simply one or more computers connected to each other electronically--with wires or cables which allow them to send signals back and forth. You could have two computers at home with a cable connecting them together, and that would
be a network.
Large companies, governments and universities have thousands of computers linked together. This is possible because computers can be connected at any distance using the telephone lines already installed for voice telephone service. The computers "talk" to each other over these lines as well as over lines installed specifically for computers. These lines can run from room to room, building to building, and even country to country.
When the different international companies, universities, national and local governments, and anyone else with a properly-equipped computer connect to each other you get the Internet--a network of networks.
These networks can connect to each other because they have all agreed to use the same protocols. A protocol is a set of rules that governs how computers trade information. Think about how people communicate. If I speak French and you speak German we aren't going to be able to exchange any information. However, if we both agree to speak Spanish we can talk.
The "language" that all the computers on the Internet have agreed to use is called TCP/IP. TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and IP stands for Internet Protocol.
You are connected to the Internet by your modem which allows your computer to send and receive information over the phone line. Actually, your computer calls, or dials in to, one of Earthlink's computers, which then connects you to the Internet.
A basic principle in networking is the client-server relationship. Understanding this helps show how the Internet works.
For the sake of analogy, think of how people network. There are always certain people who seem to know everybody. They are the "servers" of human networks. Through them, you can connect to lots of other people. Of course, in human networking, you can call someone directly once you have met them. But if you had to call the "server" each time you wanted to talk to someone else in the network, then you would have an example of the client-server relationship.
When you make a phone call, you don't call someone else's phone directly. Your call goes to the local phone company's central office. You establish a connection to a switch in the central office, which routes your call to another switch, and another, until it reaches the central office that can directly connect to the telephone of the person you are calling. Only then does their phone ring. When they pick it up, you have made a phone call.
Your telephone set is a client, and the phone company switch is a server (this is not exactly true, but it's close enough). Without the switch, your telephone couldn't reach anyone else's telephone. In the case of the Internet, your computer is a client, and EarthLink's computer is the server. Unless your computer connects to a server (or is a server), it cannot communicate with other computers on the Internet.
When you dial into EarthLink's server, it is like making that first connection to the local central office switch, except that you can now connect to other computers on the Internet or the Web via our computers. You can make all the long distance calls you want after making that first local call.
While the concept of computer networking is pretty simple, the technology of making all these computers talk to each other is more complicated. Luckily for all of us the Internet can be navigated with programs that cover up all the complexity, and that are even simpler to use than your word processor. Everything on the Internet can be reached with one or two programs that are easy to learn and use.
• What's the Difference Between the Internet and the World Wide Web?
The Internet, as noted in "What is the Internet," is simply the global network of computers and smaller networks that use the TCP/IP networking standard.
While the Internet is really just that--a network of networks--we have come to use "the Internet" to describe the information that can be accessed through these connections.
In the past, most of the information available on the Internet came in the form of text. You could access books, articles, newsgroups, and you could send and receive mail; but pictures, music, and video were not generally accessible over the
Internet.
Recently, however, a system has been developed that can handle multimedia material. This system is made up of two parts: browser software that can "read" or "view" multimedia documents and server computers that can support and maintain those documents. Netscape and Mosaic are two of the most popular browsers.
But the Internet and the World Wide Web are not separate entities. The computers that serve Web documents are part of the Internet network. And Web browsers can read text documents that exist on the Internet as well as the multimedia documents that exist on Web servers.
So, the "World Wide Web" is a term used to identify multimedia documents as well as the computers that maintain and make it possible to view multimedia documents; it is that part or aspect of the Internet
