The Internet is the largest network in existence today. It spans over the entire globe and connects countless computers together. Theoretically, all computers on the Internet can connect to each other and exchange data.

On your &link_desktop;, you will find the "Internet" folder, which allows you to set up and use a connection to the Internet and use Internet services such as e-mail and the World Wide Web.

Technically, the Internet is a collection of other networks -- a "network of networks", really. Few people are connected directly to the Internet because a direct connection requires substantial investment in both hardware and software. Instead, most people use an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to connect to the Internet temporarily. When you dial into your ISP, you become part of the ISP's own network and thus part of the Internet only while you are connected.

Computers on the Internet are required to use the &link_tcpip; networking protocol to communicate. When you specify an internet address in your browser, such as http://www.ecomstation.com, a complex technology finds out where to find the other network behind that address and connects to the computer and the files that you have specified. The data you have requested is then transferred to your computer, possibly over thousands of miles, passing many other networks and computers in between.

Historically, the Internet was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 for military reasons to create a network that could continue to function even if parts of it became defunct in the case of a military attack or other disaster. It was thus originally called "ARPANET". Later, it was used by research facilities at one university to be able to "talk to" research computers at other universities. However, the Internet really took off only at the beginning of the 1990's with the invention of the World Wide Web.