5 definitions found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: internet \in"ter*net\ ([i^]n"t[~e]r*n[e^]t), n. A large network[3] of numerous computers connected through a number of major nodes of high-speed computers having high-speed communications channels between the major nodes, and numerous minor nodes allowing electronic communication among millions of computers around the world; -- usually referred to as {the internet}. It is the basis for the {World-Wide Web}. [PJC] From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]: Internet n : a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange [syn: {Net}, {cyberspace}] From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]: Internet n.The mother of all networks. First incarnated beginning in 1969 as the ARPANET, a U.S. Department of Defense research testbed. Though it has been widely believed that the goal was to develop a network architecture for military command-and-control that could survive disruptions up to and including nuclear war, this is a myth; in fact, ARPANET was conceived from the start as a way to get most economical use out of then-scarce large-computer resources. As originally imagined, ARPANET's major use would have been to support what is now called remote login and more sophisticated forms of distributed computing, but the infant technology of electronic mail quickly grew to dominate actual usage. Universities, research labs and defense contractors early discovered the Internet's potential as a medium of communication between _humans_ and linked up in steadily increasing numbers, connecting together a quirky mix of academics, techies, hippies, SF fans, hackers, and anarchists. The roots of this lexicon lie in those early years. Over the next quarter-century the Internet evolved in many ways. The typical machine/OS combination moved from {DEC} {PDP-10}s and {PDP-20}s, running {TOPS-10} and {TOPS-20}, to PDP-11s and VAXes and Suns running {Unix}, and in the 1990s to Unix on Intel microcomputers. The Internet's protocols grew more capable, most notably in the move from NCP/IP to {TCP/IP} in 1982 and the implementation of Domain Name Service in 1983. It was around this time that people began referring to the collection of interconnected networks with ARPANET at its core as "the Internet". The ARPANET had a fairly strict set of participation guidelines - connected institutions had to be involved with a DOD-related research project. By the mid-80s, many of the organizations clamoring to join didn't fit this profile. In 1986, the National Science Foundation built NSFnet to open up access to its five regional supercomputing centers; NSFnet became the backbone of the Internet, replacing the original ARPANET pipes (which were formally shut down in 1990). Between 1990 and late 1994 the pieces of NSFnet were sold to major telecommunications companies until the Internet backbone had gone completely commercial. That year, 1994, was also the year the mainstream culture discovered the Internet. Once again, the {killer app} was not the anticipated one - rather, what caught the public imagination was the hypertext and multimedia features of the World Wide Web. Subsequently the Internet has seen off its only serious challenger (the OSI protocol stack favored by European telecoms monopolies) and is in the process of absorbing into itself many of the proprietary networks built during the second wave of wide-area networking after 1980. By 1996 it had become a commonplace even in mainstream media to predict that a globally-extended Internet would become the key unifying communications technology of the next century. See also {the network} and {Internet address}. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]: Internet(Note: capital "I"). The Internet is the largest {internet} (with a small "i") in the world. It is a three level {hierarchy} composed of {backbone networks}, {mid-level networks}, and {stub networks}. These include commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks around the world with various {protocols}, chiefly the {Internet Protocol}. Until the advent of the {World-Wide Web} in 1990, the Internet was almost entirely unknown outside universities and corporate research departments and was accessed mostly via {command line} interfaces such as {telnet} and {FTP}. Since then it has grown to become an almost-ubiquitous aspect of modern information systems, becoming highly commercial and a widely accepted medium for all sort of customer relations such as advertising, brand building, and online sales and services. Its original spirit of cooperation and freedom have, to a great extent, survived this explosive transformation with the result that the vast majority of information available on the Internet is free of charge. While the web (primarily in the form of {HTML} and {HTTP}) is the best known aspect of the Internet, there are many other {protocols} in use, supporting applications such as {electronic mail}, {Usenet}, {chat}, {remote login}, and {file transfer}. There were 20,242 unique commercial domains registered with {InterNIC} in September 1994, 10% more than in August 1994. In 1996 there were over 100 {Internet access providers} in the US and a few in the UK (e.g. the {BBC Networking Club}, {Demon}, {PIPEX}). There are several bodies associated with the running of the Internet, including the {Internet Architecture Board}, the {Internet Assigned Numbers Authority}, the {Internet Engineering and Planning Group}, {Internet Engineering Steering Group}, and the {Internet Society}. See also {NYsernet}, {EUNet}. {The Internet Index (http://www.openmarket.com/intindex)} - statistics about the Internet. (2000-02-21) From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]: internet (Note: not capitalised) Any set of networks interconnected with {routers}. The {Internet} is the biggest example of an internet. (1996-09-17)
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