What's in this Guide?

What is the Internet?

The Internet is essentially a global network of smaller networks. It was started in the 1960s by the U.S. Department of Defense as an interconnected network of defense, government, and research institutions. Since then, it has grown into an international collection of public and private networks, each connected by a common protocol (or low-level set of communications instructions) known as the Internet Protocol (IP). Each computer on the Internet has its own unique network identifier, known as its IP address.

The actual size of the Internet is unknown, but some estimates claim that more than 20 million machines are connected to it. However, its rapid growth and its decentralized architecture make it difficult to completely map its extent.

At the core of the Internet is a backbone of high-capacity lines that carry the majority of the traffic. This backbone is supported and maintained by several communications companies connecting at a number of Network Access Points (NAPs). Private networks including educational institutions and corporations join the Internet at various points via gateways. Individual users commonly gain access by subscribing to either commercial online services or to Internet Service Providers.

The World Wide Web is a subset of the Internet using a special set of protocols that allows multimedia information (such as text, graphics, audio, video, and animation) to be easily transmitted and viewed around the world. These protocols also allow information in one document to be hyperlinked to another document, on the same computer or on any of the other computers connected to the Web. This information is contained in a website, which is a collection of webpages. A webpage is one file of information, sometimes called a "screen" (although the page may extend beyond the screen size). Webpages are viewed through the use of a web browser. Most web browsers provide a graphical interface that lets people easily navigate from website to website.

The Web gets its name because the protocol supports the use of links within pages. A link is a pointer to another document or file (an audio file, for example) within the same site or elsewhere on the Web. When a user selects a link, their browser displays the requested document or runs or plays the file. The ability to include links in webpages is one of the dramatic capabilities of this technology and is quickly opening up new ways of ordering, publishing, and accessing information.

Who Governs the Internet?

In many ways the Internet is like a church: it has its council of elders, every member has an opinion about how things should work, and you can either take part or not. It's your choice. The Internet has no president, chief operating officer, or Pope. The constituent networks may have presidents and CEOs, but that's a different issue; there's no single authority figure for the Internet as a whole. The ultimate authority for where the Internet is going rests with the Internet Society, or ISOC. ISOC is a voluntary membership organization whose purpose is to promote global information exchange through Internet technology.


  
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