Internet is an international network of computers linking government, business and academic institutions so that the data can be shared by many people around the world by the use of personal computers.
This concept was developed from the APRA net deployed by the US military for a better and effective communication. The internet, as we know today, began in 1969, when four American Universities were connected through computers for exchange of scientific data.
The number of computers linked to the internet has grown over the past 30 years and it is estimated that presently, more than 20 million computers have access to the internet. Information transfer over the internet is governed by a set of communication protocols known as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) aid Internet Protocol (IP).
Information is first broken into packets and then reassembled by TCP. IP addresses and routes this information to the destination computer over the network.
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Information does not travel directly from one computer to the other, but instead through several computers en route. All computers within the network are known as nodes. A computer needs to have a network card (Modem) and permission for access. The permission is provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP).