Your Internet Consultant - The FAQs of Life Online

Chapter 1: Just What Is This Internet?

• Just What Is This Internet?
  • 1.1. What is the Internet?
  • 1.2. OK, I have Internet access. What can I do?
  • 1.3. The Internet is free, right?
  • 1.4. But access to the Internet's resources are free, right?
  • 1.5. I'm a starving student. Is there anything I can do online that will cost me money?
  • 1.6. Where did the Internet come from?
  • 1.7. What are acceptable use policies?
  • 1.8. What parts of the world are wired for the Internet?
  • 1.9. What is BITNET?
  • 1.10. Who uses the Internet?
  • 1.11. How many people use the Internet?
  • 1.12. How fast is the Internet growing?
  • 1.13. I sometimes see the word internet with a lowercase i. Is that different than Internet with an uppercase I?
  • 1.14. So if the Internet is so great, why do I need CompuServe, Prodigy, or another online service?
  • 1.15. What kind of materials are available for free on the Internet?
  • 1.16. Why isn't there an encyclopedia available on the Internet?
  • 1.17. What's wrong with the Internet?
  • 1.18. What's allowed on the Internet?
  • 1.19. Who runs the Internet?
  • 1.20. So no one runs the Internet. So then who coordinates the Internet?
  • 1.21. What is the Internet Society?
  • 1.22. Who keeps track of all these Internet addresses?
  • 1.23. Hey, wow! I'm sitting in Eureka and talking to a computer in Finland. Who's paying for the phone call when I connect to some far-off host?
  • 1.24. What is an RFC?
  • 1.25. What is an FYI document?
  • 1.26. What is an STD?
  • 1.27. How can I get copies of RFCs, FYIs and STDs on the Net?
  • 1.28. So is this the Information superhighway?
  • 1.29. What does the future hold?

This chapter answers questions about the Internet itself: what it is, what you can do with it, and how the "rules" are made. Here also is a look at the Net's past, present, and a few opinions about its future. If you have never used the Internet, start here for insight on how it is put together. (Even if you are already familiar with the Internet, you may find this chapter will tell you more about the Internet's origins. After all, those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.)

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