Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, new, similar networks were created to link educational institutions, government offices, and military centers in the United States and other countries. In the 1990s, as the Internet has grown, private business and other regional network providers have taken over the operation of the major Internet arteries, and the development of much of the information available online. Private businesses, educational institutions, organizations, and individuals now develop much of the information content available online. The Internet is a worldwide complex of smaller regional networks. To understand it, picture a major road connecting large cities.
Smaller roads link the cities to small towns, where residents travel on narrow residential streets.
The high-speed Internet is the major road in this scenario. The Internet is a combination of computer hardware and software that allows computers to communicate with each other. If you have a telephone equipped with long distance service, you can call anyone in the world, provided you know the person's telephone number. Likewise, if you have a computer connected to the Internet, you can exchange information with any other computer in the world that is connected. Over a mesh of dedicated data lines, telephone lines, satellite links, and computers, different software programs run that allow people to communicate.