After giving an overview of Internet, this digest will outline the wealth of information and services Internet can make available. Background The Internet is a vast network linking computers all over the world. Millions of individual users regularly take advantage of Internet to communicate, search databases, and transfer files. Messages go from the PC to one of hundreds of local networks. Messages can be sent to, and information retrieved from, computers almost anywhere in the world.
Educators generally access Internet through the many universities that carry it.
Universities are not the sole entry point, however. Virtually anyone can access Internet inexpensively through the various commercial services offering accounts. Perhaps the most common application, electronic mail allows an individual anywhere in the world to communicate with any other individual, without the constraints imposed by time zones and schedules. A message can be sent from a home computer in Indiana to another in New Zealand. The sender can compose and send the message at his convenience, day or night, regardless of whether the receiver is home at the time.