Portal:Internet

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The Internet Portal

An Internet kiosk

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks, consisting of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies. The Internet appears to its users as a single worldwide network accessible to the general public. The protocol that makes it possible to use the millions of networks composing the Internet as if they were one network is a special type of packet switching known as IP or The Internet Protocol.

A computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast number of servers and other computers. An Internet connection also allows the computer to send information through the network; that information may be saved and ultimately accessed by a variety of servers and other computers. Much of the information widely accessible through use of the Internet consists of the interlinked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW). Web users typically send and receive information using a web browser. Other software for interacting with computer networks includes specialized programs for electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing.

Information is moved around the Internet by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). The Internet Protocol Suite consists of several layers of protocols. The lowest layer (the link layer) deals with protocols that transmit data over specific technologies, such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The highest layer (the application layer) supports specific applications, such as e-mail and file transfer. In between are the Internet layer, which provides for transmitting packets over any conceivable technology, and the transport layer, which provides for various services such as reliable delivery of packets or real-time streaming of packets.

Selected article

"Bale Out: RevoLucian's Christian Bale Remix!" is a satirical dance remix by American composer Lucian Piane, also known as RevoLucian, released on February 2, 2009, to YouTube and Myspace. The piece utilizes audio from a July 2008 rant made by actor Christian Bale on the set of Terminator Salvation. Various other elements are used in the remix, including pulsating dance track beats and clips of Barbra Streisand from a 2006 exchange with a supporter of then-President George W. Bush, creating the impression of Streisand arguing with Bale.

The day after its release, the YouTube page for the song had been viewed over 200,000 times, and over a million times by February 5, 2009. The Associated Press called it a "hypnotic dance track", and United Press International noted it was "catchy", characterizing it as a "YouTube sensation". Gil Kaufman of MTV.com described the piece as "a techno-ripping, demonic dance party". Time magazine's website called the track "hilarious", and Nine News characterized it as a "raging online success". The director of Terminator Salvation McG liked the remix and put a copy of it on his iPod, and Bale said he had heard the remix and thought "they did a good job".

Selected picture

Norwegian Army Lieutenant, testing LAN/WAN system
Credit: Defense Visual Information Center

Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries). Or, less formally, a network that uses routers and public communications links. Contrast with personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city) respectively. The largest and most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet.

News

WikiProjects

Main project: WikiProject Internet

WikiProjects

Related WikiProjects: Blogging • Websites • Early Web History • Internet culture

What are WikiProjects?

Selected biography

Tim Berners-Lee in 2005
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA (born June 8, 1955) is an English developer who invented the World Wide Web in March 1989. With the help of Mike Sendall, Robert Cailliau, and a young student staff at CERN, he implemented his invention in 1990, with the first successful communication between a client and server via the Internet on December 25, 1990. He is also the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (which oversees its continued development), and a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com Founders Chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Did you know...

Pete Ashdown

Categories

Selected quote

George W. Bush
Information is moving - you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it's also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets.
George W. Bush, May 2, 2007

Featured content

Things you can do

Main topics

Internet topics
Articles
Application layer
ARPANET
Blog
Browsers
CERN
Collaborative software
Computer file
Computer network
Computer networking
DARPA
Data (computing)
Electronic commerce
E-mail
English on the Internet
FidoNet
File sharing
History of the Internet
HTML
HyperCard
Hyperlink
ICANN
Instant messaging
Internet access
Internet capitalization conventions
Internet censorship
Internet Control Message Protocol
Internet democracy
Internet Exchange Point
Internet Governance Forum
Internet privacy
Internet Protocol
Internet Protocols
Internet research
Internetworking
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mosaic (web browser)
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Net neutrality
Online chat
Peering
Remote access
Transmission Control Protocol
Scale-free network
Search engine
Security
Social network service
Unicode
Uniform resource locator
User agent
User Datagram Protocol
ViolaWWW
Virtual private network
VoIP
Web browser
Web operating system
Web resource
Web service
Wide area network
World Summit on the Information Society
World Wide Web
Lists
List of basic internet topics
List of Internet topics
Academic databases and search engines
List of blogging terms
List of HTTP headers
List of HTTP status codes
List of IP protocol numbers
List of journals available free online
List of IPv6 tunnel brokers
List of PHP editors
List of organizations with .INT domain names
List of social networking websites
List of newsgroups
Comp.* hierarchy
Sci.* hierarchy
List of RFCs
List of search engines
List of virtual communities
List of web directories
List of webcomics
List of websites founded before 1995

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