The Internet -- A Brief Description

The Internet is a global network of computers, including both large industrial-strength servers and the personal computers in homes and businesses, all chained together (with network cables or phone lines), and which all speak a common "language". Examples of these computers are WebCom's servers, the computers at your Internet Service Provider (the company you dial-in to in order to access the Internet, referred to also as your "ISP"), servers at University campuses, and your personal computer when you are connected to the Internet. Because there is a common "language" (also referred to as a "protocol") among all these computers, information and files can be transmitted between them, and they understand one another.

For instance, when you send an email message from your account at your ISP, the message does not go directly from one machine to another (this would require that every computer on the Internet be physically connected to every other computer, which would be impossible to setup!), but rather it hops from machine to machine along the chain. Each machine looks at the destination address in the message, which must be written in accordance with the standard protocol, and passes the message along in the right direction. This happens many times before the message finally reaches its destination.

The Internet is seen as a global repository of "information". This information can be in many forms: text, pictures, audio clips, Web pages, software, etc. All these things have one essential thing in common: they are all kept as files on a server somewhere. When you access these files with your personal computer, the same hopping procedure happens as illustrated above. Your request for a particular "document" is bounced from your computer to the one containing the file. The document, then, is sent back along the chain to your PC, and you then have the info you requested.

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