WHAT IS THE INTERNET ?
WHAT IS THE INTERNET ?
What is the Internet? That question is tremendously difficult to answer because the Internet is so many things to so many different people. Nonetheless, you need a short answer so here goes:
The Internet consists of a mind-bogglingly huge number of participants, connected machines, software programs, and a massive quantity of information, spread all around the world.
To say the Internet is big - in terms of people, machines,
information, and geographic area included - is to put it mildly.
How big is it?
It is estimated that over 50 million people world-wide have
Internet access, a figure which is growing at over 10% per
month!. At the current growth rates everybody on the planet would
be on-line by the year 2004. Since 1988 the Internet has been
doubling in size every year. Once the exclusive domain of
researchers and academics, the Internet is now second only to the
global telephone network in its scale, economic importance, and
daily use.
Back to top.
In the infancy of the computer industry, IBM once decided that
it did not need to get into the computer business because the
entire world needed only six computers. Talk about a
miscalculation! Many millions of computers of all sizes, shapes,
and colors have been sold in the decades since IBM's incorrect
assumption. An estimated 5 million of these are currently
connected to the Internet. There are an estimated 50,000 networks
connected to the Internet, each network connecting thousands of
users.
Back to top.
The Internet has been described as the world's largest store of information. More so than any other human endeavor, the Internet has evolved spontaneously. So, information is not structured in any way. Unlike a library, the Internet's information resources follow no master plan. No one works as the Internet librarian, but Internet services directories are available which allow users to search for information by category or keywords.
A variety of network services including Electronic Mail, Anonymous FTP, Network News (Internet Bulletin Boards), Gopher, WWW (World Wide Web), and many others offer access to vast amounts of information from around the world. These services allow Internet users the ability to send and retrieve messages, share information (including text, programs, graphics, etc.), access world-wide bulletin board services, and perform research. The information available is virtually endless and includes everything from access to the latest technical research on a variety of subjects to international daily newspapers.
Information on the Internet is indeed vast, and finding your
way around can be a daunting task. Information on the Internet
also changes and seems to appear more quickly than in a physical
library, so you never know what's arrived since you last visited.
Also, keep in mind that Internet information is more personal and
fluid than the sort of information in a library. Although you may
not be able to look up something in a reference work on the
Internet, you can get ten personal responses (some useful, some
not) to almost any query you pose.
Back to top.
The Internet does not have geographical boundaries and is not limited by timezones. It ranges from Europe to Australia, from America to Asia, connecting over 160 countries around the globe. It connects home users, universities, banks, businesses, governments, libraries, schools, and so on.
Some people may think of the Internet in terms of the people that are on the net. Technical people may insist that the machines and the networks that comprise the physical Internet are the crux of the matter. Software programmers may chime in that none of it works without software. Others may feel that the essence of the Internet lies in the information present on it.
In fact, all of these people are equally right. The amount and
type of information, the hardware and software will all change,
but the simple fact of people communicating will always exist on
the Internet.
Back to top.
No one organisation owns the Internet. As a network of
networks there are many constituent parts to the Internet. All of
the customers, service providers and communications companies own
parts of the Internet. Similarly no one organisation governs the
Internet. There are a number of organisations who exert an
influence over its use and development or who assign unique
addresses for every machine on the Internet - but essentially the
government and administration of the Internet is done through
co-operation of service providers and users.
Back to top.
No one pays for "it"; there is no Internet Inc. that
collects fees from all Internet networks or users. Instead,
everyone pays for their part. Networks get together and decide
how to connect themselves together and fund these
interconnections. An individual or company pays for their
connection to an access provider like WindsorNET, who in turn
pays an international provider for its access.
Back to top.
The concept that the Internet is not a network, but a
collection of networks, means little to the end user. You want to
do something useful: send e-mail, access information or run a
program. You shouldn't have to worry about how it's all stuck
together. Consider the telephone system--it's an
"internet" too. AT&T, MCI, Sprint, WorldCom and so
on, are all separate companies that run pieces of the telephone
system. They worry about how to make it all work together; all
you have to do is dial. It's exactly the same on the Internet.
Your connection to the Internet and its 50 million users is
provided by WindsorNET. You don't need to be concerned with how
information is transferred between you and some other user or
computer on the internet. You simply need to know the address.
Back to top.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Copyright© September 1996 WindsorNET Online Inc.