What is the internet?
The Internet is a loose association of thousands of networks and millions of computers across the world that all work together to share information.

On the Net, the main lines carry the bulk of the traffic and are collectively known as the Internet backbone. The backbone is formed by the biggest networks in the system, owned by major Internet service providers (ISP) such as GTE, MCI, Sprint, UUNet, and America Online's ANS.

By connecting to each other, these networks create a superfast pipeline that criscrosses the United States and extends to Europe, Japan, mainland Asia and the rest of the world. But that doesn't mean that the network is equally well developed at every point along the route. The U.S. backbone has so many intersecting points that if one part fails or slows down, data can be quickly rerouted over another part, a feature called redundancy.

In the United States, there are five points - located in San Francisco, San Jose, Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. - where the main lines intersect, kind of like the airport hub cities. These main lines use high-speed networking equipment to connect the backbone to other networks. These networks are owned by smaller regional and local ISPs, which in turn lease access to companies and individuals in the areas they serve.

Government agencies and universities are also actively involved in running the parts of the Internet that link to supercomputer centers devoted to the research and education communities. With help from these communities, as well as financial support from the private sector, Congress has been actively planning the Next Generation Internet.

This Internet II, as it's sometimes referred to, will not replace the existing Net - rather it will form a second backbone for government and academic agencies to share information without getting caught in commercial traffic.

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