The Internet is a worldwide network of computer networks. Currently, there are over a billion people using the Internet, and millions of new users log on each month. The Internet consists of many parts. but the two most popular are the World Wide Web and electronic mail (email).

The minimum requirements are a computer and a modem. If you have a digital device such as a personal computer or smartphone, Once you have the necessary hardware, you sign on with an Internet Service Provider (ISP), a commercial on-line service.

An ISP provides direct access from your home or office to the Internet through phone lines, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or special dedicated Internet connections. Most ISPs provide popular software, including a Web browser and email client. With an ISP, however, you are free to use any other available Internet software package. Most ISPs also give users their own Web space to publish their own information.

Commercial on-line services are designed to provide relatively limited information in an easy-to-use format. Commercial services offer their own news, research resources and discussion forums, which only their members can use. They also provide access to the Internet's vast resources. Because these systems provide proprietary content and point and click software rather than just Internet access, they generally cost more than ISPs.

Any modern computer will have network capability. Once connected, you will need a Web browser, an emall program and software for decompressing and translating foreign file formats. These should be pre-loaded on your computer or provided by your ISP.

A firewall is a combination of hardware and software that separates a Local Area Network (LAN) into two or more parts for security purposes. Users accessing the network from outside the LAN can only reach information on the outside of the firewall, while local users can access any information.

A URL (uniform resource locator) is the tool used to identify sites on the Internet. Web sites begin with the prefix "http://" and FTP sites begin with "ftp://." The next set of letters refers to a server: "www" for example. The domain name follows the server and indicates who the site belongs to ("adobe", for example), and an extension identifies a business' site (".com"), a school's site (".edu"), a nonprofit site (".org") and so on.

The World Wide Web is a collection of pages that can be published by anyone and viewed by millions of Internet users. Web pages can include text, graphics, sound, files and programs. The Web is the most popular method of distributing information on the Internet.

A home page is the opening page of a website. Think of it as the cover and table of contents of a book combined into one electronic page.