Search 
MyUMUC 
WebTycho UNIX User's Guide > Intro. to Internet
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a worldwide network of computer networks that grew out of a Department of Defense-sponsored network called the ARPANET. Among other things, the Internet offers services for transferring files (FTP), sending electronic mail, retrieving information (Gopher, World Wide Web), and reading group discussions (Usenet News). There is no single command that logs you into the Internet. To access Internet services, you run programs on our UNIX system that connect to servers on other machines to retrieve the information you request.
Internet Host Names
Systems on the Internet are identified by hierarchical names that identify both the system and the organization to which they belong. All UMUC host systems are within the umuc.edu domain; for example, Nova's full name is nova.umuc.edu. Systems on the College Park campus are all part of the umd.edu domain (for example, info.umd.edu and victor.umd.edu).
The edu in these names designates them as educational sites, but there are many other top-level domains as well, such as gov (government), com (commercial), and mil (military). Although most of the hosts at UMUC have only three components in the name, other organizations may choose to subdivide their domain further; for example, the anonymous FTP server maintained by the computer science department at the University of California at Berkeley is known as ftp.cs.berkeley.edu.
Local Host vs.. Remote Hosts
When discussing Internet services, the computer to which you sign on is referred to as the local host (for example, nova.umuc.edu or polaris.umuc.edu). To use Internet services, you run client programs on the local host, that communicate with server programs on other computers connected to the Internet. These other computers are referred to as remote hosts
Computing Resources Home