Speaking to a lot of people in Townsville, after all these years there still seems to be a lot of confusion about what the internet is and it not. Some people think email is the internet and others thing it is a webpage or Google.
All these things are close, but probably not close enough. The internet is made up of lots of computers, applications and websites and people, but this post will attempt explain it a little better and make sense of all these different things we can do on it and some terminology.
The internet
The internet is not Facebook or Google. And although we have become use to calling sending emails and instant messaging the internet, these are actually things we do using the internet and are not the internet itself.
The internet is the infrastructure under the applications we use on our computer to make the communication possible. The internet is a globally connect mammoth of networks, computers, servers, routers and communication equipment we use to access the webpages, emails, search engines and gaming networks etc.
These interconnected networks and equipment use a standardised set of rules and protocols to ensure everyone on the internet can use these services. From schools, governments, corporations, businesses and home users like you, anywhere there is a open connection, most people can access internet services.
The World Wide Web (WWW)
As well as a wide range of services imaginable, the World Wide Web is essentially a system of computers and servers setup in a way in which people can access and transfer documents.
You see these documents in the form of web pages which you can access via your web browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer.
These documents be navigated to by typing an address in your web browser address bar like http://www.google.com and within these documents there can be everything from text and links to digital audio and video files.
What is an IP Address?
Like your street address which lets everyone in the work who wants to send you a letter no what house you are, on what street in which towns; the IP (internet protocol) address some something similar for the internet.
Each computer, router or network on the internet has its own individual IP address which distinguishes itself from the others.
Without it you would not be able to send and receive an email, view a website or watch a Netflix Video.
Is email the internet?
No, email is a form of communication used over the internet. You would use a program like Microsoft Outlook to send an email.
Typing your recipients email address in your “to” field will connect to your email service over the internet which will send it to your recipients email service in wait for them to access it via the email program.
Is Google the internet?
Google is not the internet, but you could be forgiven for thinking it is.
Google is a company which as well as many other things, such as new and maps, collects information based on secret algorithms for its uses to find without having to look all over the net.
Say I was searching for computer repairs business in Townsville. I would go to Google and type in that search term and Google would immediately supply a list of web site it thinks best suits your request.
Google is a massive directory of the internet with billions of links.
