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What is the Internet?

The Internet is a big network of computer networks that spans the globe, allowing people all over to communicate and share data with each other. This network of networks creates a global community of users ranging from researchers at large government institutions to teachers and students at elementary schools.This virtual community of more than 30 million people are what make the Internet what it is, so when you talk about the Internet, you also talk about the Internet community and not just the computers.

How did the Internet get started?

Well, in 1969 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wanted some way for researchers to be able to share data with each other, no matter where they were geographically located. So they set up a network of four supercomputers called the DARPANET. The idea caught on, the name was soon changed to ARPANET and by 1972 the network had grown to 37 computers. Then something began to change. The network began to be used for things other than just the exchange of military information. Defense workers started sending messages, called e-mail, to each other and the network began to get popular.

Soon many other agencies began to get connected, including the National Science Foundation, which established the NSFNET - a network of five supercomputers that allowed the information stored on them to be accessible to any educational facility that needed it. From then on, more and more people connected up and by 1990 the Internet as we know it had begun.

Who controls the Internet?

Nobody. The Internet is the closest thing to complete anarchy. How the Internet grows and lives depends almost entirely on the people who use it. A couple of organizations do have a large influence on it though. The National Science Foundation, one of the original developers of the Internet, made an acceptable use policy, which is a set of rules for the network, but that only holds true on the NSFnet backbone, though the NSFnet backbone is one of the major networks on the Internet. Another organization is the Advanced Network and Services, which has provided much of the Internet's infrastructure.

Other control comes from groups such as the Internet Society (USA) and the Resaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeene (Europe), which rely on voluntary co-operation, rather than commercial sponsorship.

What's in it for me?

Anything imaginable. The Internet allows anyone with a modem and an Internet Service Provider to get hold of huge amounts of data, ranging from software, to on-line books, to music resources, to shopping, to... Well, to just about anything. You can browse through the Library of Congress, visit any number of museums all over the world, find out where the Space Shuttle is in orbit.... The possibilities are endless.

How do I do all that?

Well, since you're reading this, you've already started exploring one way of retrieving all that information: The World Wide Web.

What is the World Wide Web (WWW)?

The World Wide Web is the latest development on the Net, and probably the most exciting. Developed in 1990 at a place known as CERN in Switzerland, the World Wide Web allows people a graphical style interface to the Internet, letting them read documents containing text, graphics, and sound, all of which are connected together by hyperlinks. A hyperlink allows someone to click on a piece of text or a graphic and bring up some other document or graphic or sound. All this information is accessed from a server by means of a WWW browser. This server-client relationship allows people at the server end to dictate what information they want people to be able to access and the people at the client end the ability to access it.

How do I access this information with my browser?

It couldn't be simpler. Remember those things called hyperlinks? All you have to do is click on hyperlinks within a document with your mouse and the information is sent to you. It's that easy.

Where do I go from here?

You can click on the HOME button at the bottom of this page to take you to the Front Page of Windows to the Universe. From there you can begin to explore around. The world is open to you. Go explore. Learn. And most of all, have fun.

Where to go for more information?

I personally would recommend the Yahoo list of Beginner's Guides to the Internet. You will find there a list of pages devoted to helping out the novice Internet user. Good luck.