The Internet is a system of computer networks that are located all over
the world, linked together for the purpose of allowing computers on these
networks to communicate and exchange information.
Local Area Networks (LAN) are created by connecting a series of computers
by cables. Groups of LANs networked together form a Wide Area Network
(WAN). These networked computers reach the Internet through an Internet
gateway.
The World Wide Web (also known as the Web or WWW) provides organization
to the information by using Web pages. This page is an example of a web
page. Web pages are stored on computers called Web servers. Web pages
can be viewed through the use of a browser. Examples of browsers
are Mosaic (the first widely used Web browser), Netscape Navigator, and
Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Web pages are written in their own
special language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Browsers
make use of a page's Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to read the page. Through simply clicking on
a designated hyperlink, the user can be transferred to another page which
is pointed to by the link.
The Graphical User Interface (GUI), or multimedia feature, of web
pages, through a combination of text, graphical images, sound, and video,
transforms a page into a wealth of knowledge that is interesting to view.
It is this feature that makes the use of the Internet so popular and
easy.