Library Tutorial - Internet Resources - Background to the Internet and Web

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a world-wide network of computers which share information and data with each other using the World Wide Web (WWW), email, and other methods such as ftp (a way to transfer files) and telnet.

What is the World Wide Web?

The Web is part of the Internet. People can access Web pages from other computers (known as servers) using a browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. While ftp and e-mail are primarily text-based, the Web supports graphics, audio, and video files.

No one is certain how many Web pages are actually online. Anyone can put up or take down a Website at any time. Even search engines find only a fraction of existing sites.

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