Understanding the Internet

An Analogy

What is the Internet?
The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that are connected together through phone lines, fiber optic cables, and satellites. These connected computers can range from home computers or laptops to the largest, most powerful supercomputers in the world.

HUH?
Still confused? I don’t blame you. Let’s try an analogy. The Internet is kind of like a library: in it there are hundreds of books, magazines, newspapers, information of many different sorts.

Each book contains different information, just like on the Internet each website you go to will have different information. If you look in the bibliography of a non-fiction book, you’ll find references to other books. Just like when you are at a website you might find “links” to other websites. Now, in order to see these books, you need to get yourself to a library! In order to see the information contained in the Internet you need to get yourself to a computer with a web browser and an Internet hook-up.

Alright, I follow.
Great! But the analogy doesn’t stop there! When you want a book you go to a card catalogue (or a digital one) and do a search for the title of the book. You can do exactly the same thing with a “search-engine”. When you find the book you want you get a dewy-decimal number to go and locate. When you are on the Internet you will get a “Uniform Resource Locator” (URL) that does the same thing. A URL looks like: www.library.port-moody.bc.ca.

So the Internet is just like a library?
It is and it isn’t. There are some major differences, but for the purposes of understanding how the Internet works, the analogy of a library is a good one to use.

The best way to understand the Internet is to just start playing around. Don’t worry you won’t break it!

In Actuality

The Internet is really a "global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 contries are linked into "exchanges" of data, news and opinions.

Unlinke online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which are local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well.

There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Most online services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP)."

The above information is from: Webopedia.com