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On a personal level, most people use the Internet to send and receive email and to browse information on the World Wide Web. As far as companies and institutions go, email is also important to corporate communications, as is the presence of companies on the Web.
One thing you should keep in mind as you read through the information, that the technology developed to make the Internet a reality is also often used on private networks that do not allow public access. This use of Internet protocols and Internet technology to provide networking services on a private network crates what is called an “intranet”. Therefore, an intranet would be the private equivalent of what we see on the public Internet. A company simply uses the TCP/IP protocol, Web servers, FTP servers, and other Internet technologies to exchange information on the corporate network.
With the explosive growth of the Internet and the desire of users to connect to the Internet from home, the microcomputer-to-Internet connection is growing steadily. Currently, almost half of all home users still connect to the Internet using a modem and a dial-up telephone service, which at the time provides data transfer rates of approximately 56,000 bits per second (56 kbps). The growing number of users which wish to connect at speed higher than 56 kbps use telecommunications services such as digital subscriber line (DSL) or access the Internet through a cable modem service.
To communicate with the Internet using a dial-up modem, a user’s computer must connect to another computer that is already communicating with the Internet. Two of the easiest ways to establish this connection are through the services of an Internet service provider (ISP) or by singing up for an account with an information service, such as America Online.
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