What is the Internet?

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alex.barylski
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What is the Internet?

Post by alex.barylski »

Seems many people have different ideas of what exactly (technically speaking) constitutes the "Internet".

Personally, I've always thought of the Internet and a global version of an "Intranet" whereby it's basically a suite of protocols for various funcitonality.

HTTP, FTP, Gopher, SMTP, etc...some more common than others :P

With this understanding, I've always considered the "Web" as the impetus behind the "Internet" as the Web is basically an quick way of saying HTTP and HTML tied togather to offer a "Web" of inter-related/connected hypertext documents.

The Web is what glues these peices togather, thus the definition of the web.

I brought this up with some friends (none of whom are really techy - as we are anyways) and I got some interneting replies :P

I'm curious, how do ya'll define Internet and The Web?

Would you agree with my definition above or totally dispute?

Cheers :)
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

Internet: vast, redundant, wide-area network that is decentralized.
Web: what laymen refer to as "The Internet." For myself, it's the interconnection of venues via the HTTP protocol, often utilizing HTML as a common language.
alex.barylski
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Post by alex.barylski »

feyd wrote:Internet: vast, redundant, wide-area network that is decentralized.
Web: what laymen refer to as "The Internet." For myself, it's the interconnection of venues via the HTTP protocol, often utilizing HTML as a common language.
Hehe, ok so would you say we agree?
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

We're in the same vein, I would say.
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

The internet is a damn big network! That's it.

(Note to self: Banoffee Pie is not the best thing to eat for breakfast)
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onion2k
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Post by onion2k »

d11wtq wrote:(Note to self: Banoffee Pie is not the best thing to eat for breakfast)
Note to d11: You wrong!
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Jenk
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Post by Jenk »

I've always considered the term "Web" to describe the connections between machines, and if the connections were drawn onto an atlas it would appear the world is surrounded by a web like a fly on a real spiders web once the spider has pounced.
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

never heard of it
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jyhm
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Post by jyhm »

Originally the 'internet' was a U.S. Government funded experiment called ARPAnet, headed by Bob Taylor (A Pentagon Bureaucrat) . In which the main purpose of the experiment was to create a communications system that would still be functional during a nuclear war or equivalent catastrophe.

I forget whom, but someone on the project went before Congress to suggest making the 'internet' public and available to the academic community because of the potential it had for research. This idea was basically 'sold' to Congress and 'bought' entirely so that one would speculate if that had not happened how long would it have been?

A really good read on the topic in my opinion is a book called:
NERDS 2.0.1
It is written from a journalists perspective giving attention to a historical account of the people and events behind the internet, with out gobs of technical jargon. It has funny stories about nerd culture in the early 70's especially the attraction to gambling and numbers.

EDIT: Of course we all know that Al Gore really invented the internet!
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

wikipedia wrote:A common semi-myth about the ARPANET states that it was designed to be resistant to nuclear attack. The Internet Society writes about the merger of technical ideas that produced the ARPANET in A Brief History of the Internet, and states in a note:
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jyhm
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Post by jyhm »

Mmmm, thats an interesting factoid NSG, one I overlooked. I can't argue with a former member of the project but I bet the other former members can argue with themselves quit a bit! :wink:
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Christopher
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Post by Christopher »

jyhm wrote:EDIT: Of course we all know that Al Gore really invented the internet!
That is actually something George Bush said, accusing Gore of being a liar! ;)

Gore said (in a interview with Wolf Blitzer), "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Vincent Cerf said, "The Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the Vice President in his current role and in his earlier role as Senator."

Marc Andreesen credits Gore with making his work possible. He received a federal grant through Gore's High Performance Computing Act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Perfo ... ct_of_1991

etc., etc.
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