Internet

The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that is linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

A Brief History of the Internet
In 1969 u.s. Department of Defense started a project to allow
researchers and military personnel to communicate with each other in an emergency. The project was called ARPAnet and it is the foundation of the Internet.

Throughout the 1970's what would later become the Internet was developed. While mostly military personnel and scientists used it in its early days, the advent of the World Wide Web in the early 1990's changed all that.

Today, the Internet is not owned or operated by any one entity. This worldwide computer network allows people to communicate and exchange information in new ways.

What is the Internet?

the internet is the largest computer network in the world, connecting millions of computers a network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together.

There are two types of computer networks.

• Local Area Network(LAN): A LAN is two or more connected computers sharing certain resources in a relatively small geographic location (the same building, for example)

• Wide Area Network(WAN): A WAN typically consists of 2 or more LANs. The computers are farther apart and are linked by telephone line, dedicated telephone lines, or radio waves. The internet is the largest Wide Area Networks (WAN) in existence.

Servers

All computers on the Internet (a wide area network, or WAN) can be lumped into two groups: server and clients. In a network, clients and server communicate with one another.

A server is a common source that:

• provide shared services (for example, network security measures) with other machines.
• Manages resources (for example, one printer many people use) in a network.

Clients

Remember, all computers on the Internet (a wide area network, or WAN) can be lumped into two groups: server and clients, which communicate with one another.

Independent computer connected to a server is called client. Most likely, you have or office computer does not provide services to other computers. Therefore, it is a client

Clients, run multiple client software applications that perform specific functions.

For Example,

•  An application such as Microsoft Outlook is client software.
• Your web browser( such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) is client software.