:: The Big Picture : A Brief History : How It Works : Current Trends : Words To Know ::
B   A   C   K M   E   N   U H   E   L   P N   E   X   T	:: The Big Picture                            ::   a     n e t w o r k     o f     n e t w o r k s  ::

Since the beginning of the digital revolution, computers have been connected into networks so they could communicate and share resources. It is the Internet which connects thousands of networks all around the world into one global network of networks. Amazing as it seems, no one entity owns or controls the Internet. Just as it is possible to travel around the world using foreign railways and roads, it is possible for digital information to literally circumnavigate the earth via this global electronic network. This might sound like an easy thing for computers to do, but it is not. There are many proprietary networking protocols that can present serious communication barriers to computers. The barriers are similar to the language barriers that exist between different cultures. Imagine what would happen if all the world tried to talk together at the same time without a common language. TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol. It is a long technical name for a simple idea: the Esperanto of the Internet. TCP/IP has been enormously successful at tying together the world's networks. In fact it's worked so well, that in many cases it's replaced proprietary networking protocols and is being used on a majority of new networks.

	B  A  C  K	M   E   N   U	H   E   L   P	N   E   X   T

Design and Content © Copyright Epoch Networks Incorporated, 1996