What Exactly is the Internet Anyway?

The Internet is a giant network of smaller networks that allows computers to communicate with one another. There is no warehouse stacked with computers where the Internet is stored. The Internet is almost alive...it virtually grows on its own. There is no one, single starting point and no ending point – it is all around us.

Believe it or not, but what we now know as the Internet was not created with e-commerce and the like in mind, and contrary to his own belief, it was not created by Al Gore. As the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union began to heat up, U.S. officials decided they needed a system capable of transmitting messages even in the event of a nuclear attack. The project was given to and developed by the Defense Department.

The Defense Department created the Advanced Research Projects Agency and charged them with the development of this project. In 1969, ARPAnet was brought online, with connections at UCLA, the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Utah, and Stanford University. In the years following, other connections were added to the network, most of them universities. Thus, ARPAnet became the first true backbone of the Internet.

Ray Tomlinson adapted email for ARPAnet in 1972. To accomplish this, Tomlinson combined the file transfer protocols of one program with the send and receive message capabilities of two others to create the first electronic email program. . To address email to an individual user on the computer, Tomlinson needed to indicate both the machine and the particular user for whom the message was intended, and find a way to separate the two in the address.

He chose the @ symbol that we are all so familiar with today as the link between the username and address. The @ symbol is now as much a part of our society as ® or ™.

The World Wide Web is the tool we use to travel across the Internet. It was developed with the idea that any computer should be able to read the information from any other connected computer without difficulty. The Internet is the physical aspect - the computers, the cables, the networks, etc. The Web is what we use to visualize what is on the Internet.

For a while, up until the mid-1990s, it was still essential for someone using the Internet to have to know how to operate several different kinds of software. Although there was a common internal format, you had to use several different programs depending on what it was you wanted to do. This meant you still had to be somewhat of an expert. This is where the CERN and the World Wide Web come in.

Located near Geneva, on the border of Switzerland and France, the CERN is a research center for particle physics where top engineers and scientists from around the world go to investigate their theories. One of these researchers was Tim Berners-Lee who had always been intrigued by the possibilities of connecting computers to one another, regardless of their operating system. He created the web and a browser, but the initial problem was getting people to use it. It wasn’t until Internet Service Providers such as America Online and Compuserve opened their online communities to the web that it really took off.

The Net or Web, as it is sometimes referred to, has grown to be an indispensable tool in our personal and professional lives. It is easier than ever to get connected and begin surfing the web, sending email and more, as you will see in the “Getting Connected” section. The recent crash of many dot-com companies will not affect the web in any substantial way; in fact, it may end up being a blessing in disguise, as many of the “lesser” companies are weeded out.

The increasing number of households and business that have high-speed Internet access, either via a DSL, Cable, or some other type of connection, will bring the Internet into a new age.

Since the e-commerce boom in the mid-to-late 90s, the Internet has taken a hit in the court of public opinion on its viability and economic stability. While it is not totally undeserved, things are not quite as bad as we have been led to believe - even as critics rant about the amounts of money lost in Internet ventures, more and more people are using the Internet everyday. First, investors could not get enough. Now it seems that no one wants to touch Internet companies. The reality likely lies somewhere in the middle.

One of the fastest growing sectors of the Internet and the one with perhaps the brightest future is business-to-business e-commerce. B2B e-commerce will enable business to save tons of cash by cutting costs, reducing error, and producing increased sales, as traditional barriers such as company size and location will be all but eradicated. Imagine a manufacturer able to receive an order immediately as it is placed. Inventory can be controlled more efficiently, and new products will reach the market faster.