Computer and Internet Directory

The information relevant to computer and internet based websites are grouped in this directory. A computer is a general-purpose machine that processes data according to a set of instructions that are stored internally either temporarily or permanently. The computer and all equipment attached to it are called hardware. The instructions that tell it what to do are called "software." A set of instructions that perform a particular task is called a "program" or "software program."

Internet is the connection of the computers to the each other through some specific system. It is a larger network of the networks. Internet computers use the TCP/IP communications protocol. There are more than 100 million hosts on the Internet, a host being a mainframe or medium to high-end server that is always online via TCP/IP. The Internet is also connected to non-TCP/IP networks worldwide through gateways that convert TCP/IP into other protocols.

The Internet's surge in growth in the mid-1990s was dramatic, increasing a hundredfold in 1995 and 1996 alone. There were two reasons. Up until then, the major online services provided e-mail, but only to customers of the same service. As they began to connect to the Internet for e-mail exchange, the Internet took on the role of a global switching center.