Inter-what?

No, I'm not talking about a giant government consipiracy/hoax scheme (although a few senators still seem to think so). And this is definitely not a religious tract. There is no 'thing' that is the internet. Every single computer that's linked into the whole helps make up the internet (including the one you're on right now). By dialing in and reading this, you have expanded the net. It does not rely on any central computer or specific piece, it is the term used to describe the collection of all the cables and all the phone lines and all the computers that are simultaneously hooked together right now. And no one runs it. Not the Uncle Sam, not Big Bill, not nobody.

Originally, the internet was a series of computers connected remotely (probably over dedicated phone lines); it was built by ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency -- an arm of the US Defense Dept.) So it was built by the government. But it was designed in such a way that any piece in the network can be removed -- any phone line, any computer -- and the rest of it still works. It was actually designed to survive a nuclear war.

Somewhat recently, the US Government removed their last computer from the network -- and it was a biggy -- and nothing happened. Nothing at all.

Essentially, the internet relies on protocols -- predefined electronic means of communication. Protocols can be very simple. When you were five, and you called the front seat, you got the front seat. That's a protocol. The internet relies a large number of protocols that allow all the machines to communicate; protocols such as TCP/IP, FTP, HTTP, Gopher, Archie, VRML. These are all acronyms that describe the kind of information that's being exchanged, and who or what is exchanging it.

Take TCP/IP for instance. It's one of the most basic protocols - Transfer Control Protocol / Internet Protocol -- simple, right? That just means that it describes the way that that two or more machines that are interconnected over a network are going to agree to transfer information back and forth.

That's where the faith comes in: in order for the system to work correctly, every single computer has to exchange all its information with every other computer in exactly the same way, or it won't work. It's pretty amazing how it all works together. And it works because individuals define new protocols, ones that are really good. They hand them out, and everyone agrees that they're good, then everyone agrees to make all their products use those protocols, and they talk together.

Tim Berners Lee defined HTML, which is what defines the shape and position of the things on this page. You can see the page as I want you to see it because no matter what software you use (Netscape, Internet Explorer, AOL, Opera....), it understands how to draw this page, because it's using the protocol.

For the purists

I should probably tell you that technically, the web and the internet are not quite the same thing. "The internet" is an all-encompassing term; "the web" actually refers to graphical pages such as the one you're looking at. However, I and everybody else now use the term net, internet, and web to refer to the same thing - what you're seeing through your browser.

Believe it or not, there are other ways to look at information on the internet. Email is a perfect example. It's a kind of information that's being exchanged, defined by the SMTP protocol (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) which is viewed with a mail-reading program, not a browser. Programs like Netscape now allow you to see web pages, send mail, and download files (FTP - File Transfer Protocol), thus blurring the lines and allowing you to "surf the net," no matter what kind of information your sending and receiving.