To ~et you started in the wonderful new world of the lntemet， we ve included a quick<br > overview of that famous information satperh ghway. This chapter gives you enough of<br > tlle Internet s origin history and current status so that you will basicall3~ understand<br > what s going on out there in cyberspace and we ll do it" without swamping you with<br > teehnic~d details.<br > The end of this chapter lists some Interact sites that can guide you toward learning<br > even more about the lnternet So， if you enjoy details， after you read this chapter<br > you ll kaaow how to find out more about the Inten/et from tl{e lntemet itself.<br > Let s not won3， about details now， we re just out tbr a scenic tour. So， we ll hegin by<br > det ming an important term the term "intelnaet" itself.<br >~ ]nternet versus The Internet<br > There are interacts and then dlere is The~( ~ -~l ~~，~ * -~ i ~..i ~ w ~.<br > Inteniet. A small "I" intemet coukl be an)， two<br > computer networks that are interconnected so<br > that users on both neb.vorks can share re.. Figure I A basic interact<br > sources on either network， A network is at least<br > hvo eomputers connected 1(call)， to each<br > otherIbut some networks have thousands of computers. An internet is at least two<br > connected networks- regardless of the size of either one. Here we ve depicted two<br > connected networks as icons and have labeled them Network A and Network B (see，<br > Figure 1). This is the simplest internet possible.<br >