What's This 'Internet' I Keep Hearing About? - Part Three - Connecting

When you connect to the Internet, you're using networking technology, but things are usually a lot muddier. There's an apt phrase, "Rome wasn't built in a day" because neither was the Internet. The only reason the Internet could spring up so quickly and cheaply for people was because another kind of network already existed throughout the world - the phone network!

The pre-existence of the phone network provided a medium for ordinary computers in ordinary people's homes to be connected onto the great high-tech military and research network that had been developed in years before. It just required some technological mastery in the form of 'modems'. Modems allow phone lines to be turned into a mini-network connection between a home and a special company (an 'ISP') that already is connected up to the Internet. It's like a bridge joining up the road networks on an island and the mainland - the road networks become one, due to a special kind of connection between them.