It enables universities, governments, businesses and consumers to share files, post notices and converse via computers, modems and phone lines. In the network's earliest days, only computer scientists at a handful of research institutions across the country were given access. As the Net grew, its population broadened to include scientists from other disciplines. Eventually universities came to realize the power of file-sharing, and the Net became the communications medium for the worldwide academic community. Only in the last several years did large numbers of consumers without technical or academic backgrounds begin to homestead on the Net.
Nobody knows for sure.
And even if someone could compile a global census, that number would be wildly out of date by the time it was published. The Internet Society, the organization in charge of coordinating standards for the network, says the current number of networks is 43,000. Each of those hosts might support 100 people or just one lonely power-user. The consensus guess for a total population figure is 28.9 million users. Others contend the population may be ''only'' 13.5 million.