What do you call something you can't see, can't be touched or heard, and has 35 million or so people using it ?
If it isn't the Internet we're all in deep trouble. Those that suggested a fridge in a tree should seek professional help and those that said nothing or copied the answer should be ashamed of themselves.
The Internet really is the Next Big Thing, bigger than hoola hoops, skateboards and the O.J. Simpson trial. When you are on the Internet, you can find newspapers, the latest information about Star Trek, or catch David Letterman's latest top ten list. There have even been reported sightings of Elvis. And it is growing everyday. There are said to be more than 35 million people on it and that number gets bigger everyday.
The big problem with the Internet is how difficult it is to describe.
This is because it doesn't really exist as a physical thing - which
makes getting spare parts for it rather awkward.
The remarkable thing about the Net is that the computers on it vary in types from Cray mainframes to Personal PCs and in operating systems from DOS to MVS (IBM's mainframe OS). The physical connections between machines include everything from dial-up telephone lines through to dedicated fiber-optic, satellite and microwave links. Despite this diversity, machines are able to communicate with each other because the Net is defined in terms of protocols not physical connections. The situation is not dissimilar to what occurs when you telephone a colleague on the other side of the world. As long as you know their telephone number and they are ready to receive your call and you both speak the same language you will have a successful call. The fact that the exchange involves several different telephone companies connecting to each other, and in its journey it may be carried by wire, fiber optic, satellite and microwave is simply transparent. The same is true for the Net, if you know the protocol to send to someone on the Net and they are prepared to talk to you, the mechanism of the Net becomes transparent
First off you need to know what a network is; first and foremost it is a (warning, technical term coming up) bunch of computers connected together. They are connected so that each one can share the others' information. So, you might have a list of good restaurants on one computer and Major League Baseball schedules on the other. Once on the network you can `access' (that is `get at') the information on the two computers. So you'll be able to check out the schedule for your favorite baseball team - well you could if they'd spend more time playing and less time squabbling.
So you start off with lots of computers connected together (in networks) and then connect lots of networks together and then call it the Internet. The Internet is a network of networks. Simply put, the Internet is a collection of thousands (possibly millions) of computers connected together in the most ramshackle way possible.
There is a reason for this approach. Originally, what was to become the Internet was an experiment to connect four military computers at different sites. The idea of the experiment was to see if they could still talk to each other if you dropped a bomb on one of them, It was a success, unfortunately everybody was deaf after the explosion, but at least the computers could still connect to each other. The reason they were still talking was due to the way they were connected: each site was connected to more than one other site, so if one was blown up the others could talk to the rest. To show this, try this practical example. Get a blank piece of paper and make 25 random dots on it, then scribble over them for 10 seconds. The resulting picture is a little like the Internet looks, each dot is a computer and the scribbles are the connections.
The project was started in late 1968 and went live in 1969. It was small, it wasn't much good to the rest of us and you certainly couldn't order pizza on it, but the Internet was born. The experiment just grew and grew, more and more computers were hooked up and slowly it took off. By 1972 there were 37 computers on the Net and it was called ARPANET (great name, huh?). If you read that 37 and curled your lip thinking `well that's not many' you might bear in mind that, if the wind changes your face will stay like that, and more importantly, in 1972 the PC was still 9 years off.
These computers that were connected together were of the very big, very expensive variety of mainframes. Modern desktop computers have things that plug into them that enable them to connect to the Internet, you couldn't just pop down to the store and pick up an Internet connection for a mainframe - in the 1970's it was a real nightmare to get connected up. So it was a mad rush when the PC came on the scene and allowed everyone to join in, although computer nerds got the best seats.
By then all sorts of information was appearing on the Internet (the term `Internet' can be traced back to a planning document dated 1974, but if you can prove you invented it before - get to the patents office now!). And as that information grew more people joined. So by the late 1980's we had millions of PC compatibles, the Apple Macintosh and Star Trek: The Next Generation; it was about time for another technology explosion, either that or it was about time someone explained how Riker ever got to be a Commander at Starfleet. Networks are what happened, more computers were connected to each other, more people on-line talking to each other. The US and other countries developed their own networks, which all got connected together, and a truly international Internet arrived.
The other Big Thing about the Internet is electronic mail (or e-mail), this is writing a letter on your computer and sending it to someone via the Internet. The beauty of e-mail is your message can get to someone's computer across the world within minutes and, assuming your spelling is good enough, that someone is reading it almost immediately - although it should never become a replacement for asking the person working next to you to open the window. E-mail is slightly different from the general information that is available on the Internet because it is personal, and only for the person it was sent to. Everyone who is on the Internet has their own e-mail address; that's a lot of people.
Spurred on by the Apple Macintosh, the PC slowly developed better and better graphics and, as if to prove how Nature abhors a vacuum, some scientists decided to use those graphics. In 1990 some scientists at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) went off and invented a graphical Internet document, this is like the information that was available on the Internet but this time with pretty pictures. The World Wide Web had arrived, now you can put pictures up on the Internet. People who want to read what you have written can look at your picture as well (now YOU could have your 15 minutes of fame). But it goes further than that, the pictures allow you to "click" (with a mouse) on certain areas and that will whisk you to another page that might be on a computer thousands of miles away. All this traveling and you won't have to buy one plane ticket. [lower right cornerinsert]
The Web really consists of two parts, web servers and web clients or browsers. Servers supply documents and run at the site where the documents are located. Browsers view documents and talk over the Net to the server, using a well defined protocol. The server responds to the client demands and returns the requested document. The document is returned as a fairly plain text file, it is the browser which turns this raw data into pretty pictures and formatted text. This magic happens because within the document are commands which instruct the browser to display this text bold, show this picture or Go there if this word is picked
It isn't that difficult to get on the Internet. There is no big secret to it. You don't need to wander around with your collar up and whisper "the geese fly backward over the orchard" to get on. But you do need to find a gateway and, you probably won't find one in your Rand McNally road guide. You need to approach what are called Internet service providers: these are companies that already have connections to the Internet and will sell you time on it. You do a deal with them where you pay to "join" and then they connect you.
