The Internet on a Budget - Part 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the Internet:

The Internet is a collection of computers around the globe all connected
together in a vast network with the ability to exchange information. This
network was originally created to allow government computers to exchange
vital information even after a nuclear attack disrupted most normal
communications. It then expanded to the world wide academic fraternity of
universities and research institutes and finally to the rest of the world.
Connecting your computer to this network allows you to tap (and
contribute) to this stream of information.

Each computer on the Internet has an address -- just like your mailing
address -- that identifies it to all other computers on the 'Net. This
address is its "URL" (Uniform Resource Locator) -- it identifies both the
computer and the protocol (type of connection) used with it. An example
would be "http://www.company.com" -- this identifies a computer called
"www" at "company" in the "com" (COMmercial) domain (the top-level or
"country" part of the address) and using the "http" (HyperText Transfer
Protocol -- the World Wide Web) protocol.

Some other protocols would be: "ftp" for File Transfer Protocol; "gopher"
for an older way of getting (mostly) text based information; and "news"
for Usenet Newsgroups (like a bulletin board.) There are others that you
can find out about once you're on-line. "E-Mail" (Electronic Mail) is the
Internet service most people are going to use most often. It's basically
the Internet equivalent of regular mail (or "snail" mail, as it's
frequently referred to on the net) from the post office. Another service
called "IRC", for Internet Relay Chat, is a live version of Usenet, like
talking on a party-line telephone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prepared by Peter Conrad Cumminsky, consultant, ASEE, CET, Team OS/2
(707) 987-9484
Visit my Computer Taming web site at
URL:http://www.angelfire.com/biz/taming/


(C) Copyright 1993-1998 [email protected]