What is the Internet?

Internet is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected network using standardized communication protocols, it is a global network connecting millions of computers.

In other words, it is a means of connecting a computer to any other computer anywhere in the world.

The internet sometimes called the “NET”, is a worldwide system of computer networks that links together other smaller computer networks. A network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permissions, get information from any other computer and sometimes talk directly to users at other countries. It is designed to allow high speed communication between various organizations, companies and countries.

It was conceived by the advanced Research Projects Agency of the united States government in 1969 and was first known as the ARPANET. A need was realized to connect the top universities of the United States so that they can share all the research data without spending too much of time. A side benefit of ARPANET’s design was that messages could be routed or re-routed in more than one direction, the network could continue to function even if parts of it were destroyed in the military attack or other disaster.

After the ARPANET got success in 1969, it didn’t take the experts long to understand that how much potential can this interconnection tool have. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson made a system to send electronic mail. This was a big step.

Technically, what distinguishes the internet is its use of a set of protocols called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol).

Two recent adaptations of internet technology, the intranet and the extranet , also make use of TCP/IP protocol.

The most widely used part of the internet is the world wide web(www) or called the “WEB” which was invented Tim Barnes Lee and Robert Cailliau. It’s understanding feature is hypertext. Using the web, you have access to billions of pages of information.

And web browsing is done on a web browser and there are many web browsers which can be installed into the computer system examples are;

Google chrome
Safari
Mozilla firefox
Opera
Internet explorer
Netscape
Camino e.t.c.

SOURCE: www.blazegist.com.ng