What is... The Internet

A guide to understanding the basics of the Internet

Author:  Paul Landers

While we all use the words Internet (with a capital I), internet (with a lower-case i) and Web (or World Wide Web) interchangeably, did you know that they are all technically different and each has a specific meaning?

The Internet (spelt with a capital I) refers to the worldwide network of computers, servers and networks that anyone can access and use.

An internet (spelt with a lower-case i) is defined as two or more inter-connected computer networks.

The World Wide Web (Web or WWW) is one of the ways we access information over the Internet. We use the Web each time we use the "HTTP" protocol (HyperText Transfer Protocol) - it's one of the computer "languages" of the Internet. Your "Web Browser" is used to access the Web - I'm sure you've noticed it accessing information using http://www.etc etc? A "Web Site" is a site which disseminates its information using the HTTP protocol. Email is sent and received via the Internet but it is not a part of the Web.

Does it all really matter to us users? Not really, it's just nice to know. Additionally, for this article, I'm going to cheat and discuss the Internet and the Web as the one entity.

As I said, the Internet is a worldwide network of individual and groups of computers, servers and networks. Nobody "owns" or "runs" the Internet. There are various groups that control and/or manage some aspects of it (like registering Domain names or Web Site names) but there is no one individual or group responsible for it all. Anyone with the appropriate knowledge and equipment can "join" the Internet and use all of the wonderful facilities it offers.

Picture the Internet as a huge spider web. Imaging each strand of that spider web as being electrical cable capable of carrying electrical signals to and from every other strand with which it intersects. Now picture computers dotted all along and connected to each strand of the spider web. Using the many strands of the spider web as "carriers", you can now picture how electrical signals (after all, that's exactly what information is) can be passed to and from any computer connected to that spider web to any other computer connected to that spider web, regardless of how close or far away it is. The Internet is similar, it uses the many carriers and networks connected to it to pass information from one place to another.

Not unlike the Internet 

A friend recently "traced" the route that their computer (based in Sydney, Australia) was taken to connect to the Amazon.com site (based in Seattle, Washington). It used 19 "hops" (or different network connections) to get there - and in less than 2 seconds! Picture that on our spider web - 19 different strands to connect two computers half a world away from each other. Clever? You bet! 

The Internet is vast. It is estimated that there are in excess of one billion Internet users worldwide. There are literally millions of computers connected to the network called the Internet. On those computers there are hundreds of millions of "web sites". Combined, those web sites provide access to literally billions of web pages. The statistics are staggering.

So, how does it all work? Well, your Service Provider (the company you pay each month for your broadband or modem connection) keeps open a permanent connection (or many connections) to the Internet. When you login to your Service Provider, you are given access to the Internet through their open connection. When you open your Web Browser program, you are essentially opening an Internet language interpreter (your Web Browser translates the HTTP language which it then displays as a page in its window).

When you type in a Web Site's URL (Uniform Resource Locator previously known as Universal Resource Locator) such as www.miceandme.com, the Web Site is located via a series of numbers that are linked to that URL. The system is rather like the phone book on your telephone - you press John and your phone dials a series of numbers that are pre-allocated to John. When the site is found and connected with, your Web Browser receives a packet of HTTP information which it displays as a Web Page. When you click on a link on the Web Page, the whole process starts again. Super clever? I think so!

The Internet - bringing the world to you

When you search for something on the Web, you use a "Search Engine" (Google, Yahoo, Live Search, MSN Search, Ask.com etc). Search Engines "spider" or "crawl" the Web continuously, collecting words, terms, phrases, images etc which they index and store on large "Servers". When you type in a search word, term or phrase, the Search Engine compares your request to its index and returns the results (with links to each page). It all sounds so simple doesn't it? It isn't, just imagine what's involved in keeping continuous track of hundreds of millions of Web Sites and billions of pages of information! Next time you perform a "Search" and the results are displayed in a matter of seconds, think of the complexity of what just transpired!

We all have our favourite sites which we visit regularly. We've listed some of ours here.

The Web is full of many varieties of entertainment and enjoyment. We've included some here.