Internet Basics

Internet Basics

The Internet is a great method of communication. It has been around since the 1960s but it wasn't until Microsoft Windows began supporting Internet Service via the World Wide Web that it became easy to use. New services and uses are appearing each day. Internet is really nothing more that a hugh network made up mostly of a telephone network which is managed by large companies like MCI, AT&T, Sprint, UUNet, and many others.

We provide our customers a connection to the Internet by providing equipment that allows our customers to dial into our network. Our network is connected by a computer called a "router" which is connected to a special 1.54 mbps high speed Southwestern Bell phone line called a T1. This T1 leaves our building and connects to a fiber switch which Southwestern Bell connects to a MCI Internet Backbone which runs from Fayetteville to Houston Texas. In Houston a connection to the full MCI 145mbps Internet Backbone which routes our services to computer services all over the world.

When you dial into our service, you are assigned a special number called an ip address. You are not aware of this but your computer is and for the time it is connected your computer is the only computer in the world that has that very special number. For the time you are on line, your computer becomes a part of the Internet.

When you use a software like Netscape or MS Explorer which both are Web Browsers to ask for information from a computer located at Microsoft, your ip address is sent with your request to that computer which could be located anywhere in the world. The Microsoft server will evaluate your request and attach it to your ip address and the Internet then uses this address to find your computer and return the information back to your software. Your software then displays the information based on formatting codes that is entered in the information by the creator of the information. Email works much the same way.

The best method to learn the Internet is to use it. We offer classes several times a month for a modest fee to those who want to skip the trial and error method and learn the basics in a classroom.

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