The Internet is the largest computer network in the world (Brian Larson and Floyd Fuller,

2005, P.308). Historically the word internetted was used, uncapitalized, as early as 1849 as an
adjective meaning "Interconnected; interwoven". The designers of early computer networks used
internet both as a noun and as a verb in shorthand form of internetwork or internetworking,
meaning interconnecting computer networks. Indeed the Internet can be thought of us a large
computer network. We can, however, in more technical terms define the internet as a global
system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link
several billion devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private,
public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad
array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.
The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail,
telephony, and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing. Individuals, organizations, businesses and
governments use the internet to accomplish a number of different activities that can roughly be
subdivided in the following categories: Communication, Research, Distance Learning,
Entertainment & e-Commerce.
The origins of the Internet date back to research commissioned by the United States government
in the 1960s to build robust, fault-tolerant communication via computer networks. The primary
precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional
academic and military networks in the 1980s. The funding of a new U.S. backbone by the
National Science Foundation in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial
backbones, led to worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies,
and the merger of many networks. The linking of commercial enterprises by the early 1990s
marks the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, and generated a sustained
exponential growth as generations of institutional, personal, and mobile computers were
connected to the network.
Most traditional communications media, including telephony and television, are being reshaped
or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as Internet telephony and Internet
television. Newspaper, book, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or
are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. The entertainment industry, including music, film, and
gaming, was initially the fastest growing online segment. The Internet has enabled and
accelerated new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and
social networking. Online shopping has grown exponentially both for major retailers and small
artisans and traders. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply
chains across entire industries.
The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for
access and usage; each constituent network sets its own policies. Only the overreaching
definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space

and the Domain Name System (DNS), are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and
standardization of the core protocols is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF),
a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate
with by contributing technical expertise.
The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used interchangeably in everyday speech; it is
common to speak of "going on the Internet" when invoking a web browser to view web pages.
However, the World Wide Web or the Web is only one of a large number of Internet services. The
Web is a collection of interconnected documents (web pages) and other web resources, linked by
hyperlinks and URLs. As another point of comparison, Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, is
the language used on the Web for information transfer, yet it is just one of many languages or
protocols that can be used for communication on the Internet.
The web short for world wide web is one of the more popular services of the internet. Think of
the web as a global library of information available to anyone on the internet (Garry B Shelly et
al, 2007, P.12). Using the library analogy, we can think of the books and all the literature in a
library building (room) as comparable to the web so that the building itself and the building and
room housing the books and literature as the Internet. The building in question may actually have
many rooms and compartments offering diverse services to diverse customers. Services such as
say Book sale, Photocopying, Video Editing etc related or not related not to library services.
Likewise the Internet is able to and does in fact host many other services apart from the World
Wide Web.
The Internet continues to grow, driven by ever greater amounts of online information and
knowledge, commerce, entertainment and social networking. This growth is often attributed to
the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the
non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability
and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.
The Internet allows computer users to remotely access other computers and information stores
easily, wherever they may be. They may do this with or without computer security, i.e.
authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements. This is encouraging
new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An
accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a
server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These
accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations,
based on information emailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were
possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private leased lines would have
made many of them infeasible in practice. An office worker away from their desk, perhaps on the
other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can access their emails, access their data
using cloud computing, or open a remote desktop session into their office PC using a secure

Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection on the Internet. This can give the worker complete
access to all of their normal files and data, including email and other applications, while away
from the office.
Moreover, the Internet allows greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with
the spread of unmetered high-speed connections. The Internet can be accessed almost anywhere
by numerous means, including through mobile Internet devices. Mobile phones, datacards,
handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet wirelessly.
Within the limitations imposed by small screens and other limited facilities of such pocket-sized
devices, the services of the Internet, including email and the web, may be available. Service
providers may restrict the services offered and mobile data charges may be significantly higher
than other access methods.
Educational material at all levels from pre-school to post-doctoral is available from websites.
Examples range from CBeebies (http://www.cbeebies.com/za/), through school and high-school
revision guides and virtual universities, to access to top-end scholarly literature through the likes
of Google Scholar(https://scholar.google.com). For distance education, help with homework and
other assignments, self-guided learning, whiling away spare time, or just looking up more detail
on an interesting fact, it has never been easier for people to access educational information at any
level from anywhere. The Internet in general and the World Wide Web in particular are important
enablers of both formal and informal education. Further, the Internet allows universities, in
particular researchers from the social and behavioral sciences, to conduct research remotely via
virtual laboratories, with profound changes in reach and generalizability of findings as well as in
communication between scientists and in the publication of results.
The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made
collaborative work dramatically easier, with the help of collaborative software. Not only can a
group cheaply communicate and share ideas but the wide reach of the Internet allows such
groups more easily to form. An example of this is the free software movement, which has
produced, among other things, Linux, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org. Internet chat,
whether using an IRC chat room, an instant messaging system, or a social networking website,
allows colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way while working at their computers
during the day. Messages can be exchanged even more quickly and conveniently than via email.
These systems may allow files to be exchanged, drawings and images to be shared, or voice and
video contact between team members.
The global nature of the web makes the world a lot smaller, making it more efficient for
companies to do business on the international realm. Through the Internet, companies can stay in
touch with their partners, investors, clients, and customers, regardless of their locations. Email,
web conferences, and VoIP make the transmission of important data more seamless. For instance,
companies can quickly communicate with suppliers via chat or email to make sure deliveries and

payments are covered. The Internet can save the company a lot of time and money as it reduces
the need for additional paperwork.
A company website keeps customers abreast of new products and services, 24/7. Profit also
increases as their virtual store can cater to customers anytime, anywhere.
Companies can also maintain ties with other organizations and sister companies through the
Internet. In real-time, they can all stay updated with new information about the business and
other important matters.
The Internet is very rich in information. Anything you need, you can find on the web. For
companies doing research in products, markets, industries, new ideas, and other topics, the
Internet is an effective tool to use. Individuals can even join forums where they can interact with
people from the same industry and exchange ideas.
Businesses can conduct market research through the Internet. They can use online surveys to
study their market. They can directly ask consumers what they think about a particular product or
service. It is a very cheap and effective way of doing market research.
The Internet offers a new medium for advertising. Mailings, newspapers ads, and fliers are
slowly becoming obsolete as the Internet has become a more cost-effective way to reach
consumers. E-newsletters can now be sent directly to the in-boxes of customers with just a few
clicks of a mouse button.
Since the Internet spans the entire globe, a business market increases as anyone from anywhere
in the world becomes a potential customer. This increases market reach, thereby boosting product
recognition. As seen here the benefits of internet in business are many.
In conclusion we can simply say that the Internet is a network of networks - and there are all
kinds of networks in all kinds of sizes. One may have a computer network at his business
premises, work place, at school or at his home. These networks are often connected to each other
in different configurations, which is how we get groupings such as local area networks (LANs)
and regional networks, WANs and mobile networks. In todays world, any cell-phone will be on
a network that is considered part of the Internet, along with many other electronic devices. And
all these separate networks - added together -- are what constitute the Internet. Even satellites are
connected to the Internet. The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is the system we use to
access the Internet. The Web isn't the only system out there, but it's the most popular and widely
used. Examples of ways to access the Internet without using HTTP include e-mail and instant
messaging. The web allows people all over the world to share knowledge and opinions or to do
big business at electronic speeds. We typically access the Web through browsers, like Internet
Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. By using browsers like these, you can visit various Web sites and
view other online content.

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