short description of the Internet

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

I want to distribute a document throughout the company that gives a basic
description of how the Internet works. I'm trying to make it as simple as
possible, because the target audience is non-users who still think that 'The
Internet' is an icon on your desktop. My basic goal is to dissuade them of
that notion, so they don't say things like "I need the Internet on my
computer!!"

here's a rough draft of what I've come up with. comments, flames,
suggestions are welcome. :)

Carl Soderstrom
********************

This is a short description of how the Internet works.

At it's most basic level, the Internet is a network of wires physically
running between every computer connected to it. This means that the computer
on your desk is connected by a wire running to every other computer on the
Internet (with a lot of switches in between, of course).

On top of this wire, is a _Communications Protocol_ called TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). TCP/IP is what carries
information from one computer to another; whatever the information may be.

On top of TCP/IP, carried by it, are higher-level network connections. These
are things like the World Wide Web (what most people think of when someone
says 'Internet', because it has pictures), FTP (File Transfer Protocol; a
way to move files quickly), and e-mail services.

Carried by these higher-level networks, is the actual _content_ of the
Internet; pictures, text, sounds, etc. These are what programs on your
computer display.

The part we actually see, are the programs presenting the content. When you
launch Netscape or Internet Explorer to browse the Web, or a RealPlayer to
listen to music over the Internet, or an FTP program to transfer files; you
are just looking at one way to represent the content that has been
transmitted over the Internet. This is what you are doing when you click on
an icon to launch Netscape or the like; you are not 'starting the Internet',
you are starting a program which can show you some of the types of content
of the Internet (which you are likely already connected to) in a certain
(limited) way.