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Portal:Internet

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The Internet Portal

An Internet kiosk

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks, consisting of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies. The Internet appears to its users as a single worldwide network accessible to the general public. The protocol that makes it possible to use the millions of networks composing the Internet as if they were one network is a special type of packet switching known as IP or The Internet Protocol.

A computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast number of servers and other computers. An Internet connection also allows the computer to send information through the network; that information may be saved and ultimately accessed by a variety of servers and other computers. Much of the information widely accessible through use of the Internet consists of the interlinked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW). Web users typically send and receive information using a web browser. Other software for interacting with computer networks includes specialized programs for electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing.

Information is moved around the Internet by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) which defines how packets are moving in any platform especially the transport layer. The Internet Protocol Suite consists of several layers of protocols. The lowest layer (the link layer) deals with protocols that transmit data over specific technologies, such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The highest layer (the application layer) supports specific applications, such as e-mail and file transfer. In between are the Internet layer, which provides for transmitting packets over any conceivable technology, and the transport layer, which provides for various services such as reliable delivery of packets or real-time streaming of packets.

Selected article

CNET Networks headquarters in San Francisco, California
GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and has been owned by CNET Networks since May 2003. The site has a large database of video game information and has been called a place where readers "can get almost any information" regarding game strategies. The systems covered range from the 8-bit Atari platform to the consoles of today, including computer games. The FAQs, cheat codes, reviews, game saves, and credits are submitted by volunteer gamers, and contributions are reviewed by the site's two editors, Jeff Veasey and Allen Tyner. The site hosts a large and active message board community. Every game listed on the site has a board for discussion or gameplay help. Many of the boards are shared between GameFAQs and GameSpot, another CNET website. The site also features a daily opinion poll and related tournament contests. GameFAQs is consistently cited by The Guardian as one of the top gaming sites on the Web, and the site has been positively reviewed by Entertainment Weekly. Additionally, GameFAQs.com is one of the 200 highest-trafficked websites according to Alexa.

Selected picture

Sign for a Wireless access point in Tartu, Estonia
Credit: A. Fielder

In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP or AP) is a device that connects wireless communication devices together to form a wireless network. The WAP usually connects to a wired network, and can relay data between wireless devices and wired devices. Several WAPs can link together to form a larger network that allows "roaming".

News

WikiProjects

Main project: WikiProject Internet

WikiProjects

Related WikiProjects: Blogging • Websites • Early Web History • Internet culture

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Selected biography

Meg Whitman in 2009
Margaret C. "Meg" Whitman (born August 4, 1956) has been the President and CEO of the online marketplace eBay since March 1998. Whitman joined eBay when the company had 29 employees and operated solely in the United States; eBay is now a global organization with over 11,000 employees. In addition to managing eBay, she currently serves on the Board of Directors of Procter & Gamble and DreamWorks Animation. According to Forbes magazine, Whitman was worth an estimated $1.4 billion in 2007. She is one of only seven women to have been repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.

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Selected quote

Douglas Adams
One of the most important things you learn from the Internet is that there is no "them" out there. It's just an awful lot of "us."
Douglas Adams, 1999

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Things you can do

Main topics

Internet topics
Articles
Application layer
ARPANET
Blog
Browsers
CERN
Collaborative software
Computer file
Computer network
Computer networking
DARPA
Data (computing)
Electronic commerce
E-mail
English on the Internet
FidoNet
File sharing
History of the Internet
HTML
HyperCard
Hyperlink
ICANN
Instant messaging
Internet access
Internet capitalization conventions
Internet censorship
Internet Control Message Protocol
Internet democracy
Internet Exchange Point
Internet Governance Forum
Internet privacy
Internet Protocol
Internet protocols
Internet research
Internetworking
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mosaic (web browser)
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Net neutrality
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Peering
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Transmission Control Protocol
Scale-free network
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Unicode
Uniform resource locator
User agent
User Datagram Protocol
ViolaWWW
Virtual private network
VoIP
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Wide area network
World Summit on the Information Society
World Wide Web
Lists
List of basic Internet topics
List of Internet topics
Academic databases and search engines
List of blogging terms
List of HTTP headers
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List of IP protocol numbers
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List of IPv6 tunnel brokers
List of PHP editors
List of organizations with .INT domain names
List of social networking websites
List of newsgroups
Comp.* hierarchy
Sci.* hierarchy
List of RFCs
List of search engines
List of virtual communities
List of web directories
List of webcomics
List of websites founded before 1995

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