- The Internet is a network of networks or interconnected networks1
- The Internet consists of many different networks, with each network being composed of smaller networks within it.
- All the different devices and applications on all the different networks can communicate because every thing we send and receive over the Internet is converted into signals that follow a system of rules and converted back into a form that we can understand2.
- The Internet is where you can find the World Wide Web
- The World Wide Web is what many people think of when they think of the Internet, but the Web is only part of a bigger picture3.
- There are many other network services on the Internet, such as multiplayer online games and file sharing .
- The Internet lets people communicate globally through email, chat and social media
- The Internet facilitates fast message transmission across great geographical distances. Email was one of the early methods of communication on the Internet; chat networks (such as IRC) were popular among Filipinos for several years. Social media, with its integration of one-to-one/group instant messaging features is now a big communication medium.
- People used to depend on expensive international calls to get in touch with family abroad; social media apps today have integrated voice and video calling, reducing cost.
- The Internet is a source of information and entertainment such as movies, music and games
- Many individuals and organizations have worked to make the collected knowledge of the world available on the Internet. Different kinds of information can be accessed by anyone with an Internet-connected device, on a wide variety of topics such as music, art, engineering, science and other fields of study.
- Some social media apps and sites allow uploading and sharing of videos.
- There are sites that offer streaming services for a monthly subscription fee, where you can watch movies and episodes of TV shows to your heart’s content.
- Other sites function like an Internet-based radio, where users ‘tune in’ to listen to music. Some of these are free, supported by ads; some sites provide free streaming but also accept monthly subscriptions for an ad-free experience.
- Games are available on the Internet, from many different sites. Some are completely free, others are free but require payment for certain features or to remove ads; still others require payment before you can even download and install.
- The Internet came out of a desire to construct a computer network that enabled communication between researchers in different facilities that were geographically distant from each other.
- The United States federal government commissioned research to build communication networks that could cope with failures in one or more sites.
- The precursor to the Internet was ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) which originally served to interconnect U.S. regional academic and military networks1.
