How to Connect to the Internet

How to Connect to the Internet

How to Connect to the Internet
The Internet is a global network of thousands of computers,
growing by leaps and bounds each year. It allows a worldwide
community comprising tens of millions of people to
communicate over any distance, access information from
anywhere in the world, and publish text and images instantly.
The Internet is a link to the information resources of
campuses, libraries, and businesses, assisting in research
projects and cross-cultural studies and permitting a free
flow of ideas and studies between students, faculty, and
their peers.
Remarkably, however, a large majority of classrooms
still lack Internet connections. If your campus is among
them, you will be pleased to hear that connecting to the
Internet is easier than ever.

Where connections once required costly special services,
you now have a range of options. Commercial online
services such as America Online and the Microsoft network
offer dialup Internet access for $20 or less per month. ISPs
offer dialup and shared access connections for a variety of
prices, based on a range of line speeds up to T3 (45 Mbps)
for environments with heavy demand or a large number
of users.
On the hardware side, you can make a dialup connection
with a modem attached to one computer or a router
attached to your local-area network, allowing multiple
users to access the Internet.
Modem connections are inexpensive and easy to acquire,
so they are a good idea if you’re just starting out or if your
campus has only a few computers. However, only one person
can use a modem at any given time, leading to heavy
competition for Internet access. A single router can provide
a shared-access solution, accommodating multiple users
and multiple simultaneous Internet connections. It connects
you directly to a router at your ISP’s location.
However you choose to connect, your window on the
Internet is a browser such as Netscape Navigator or
Microsoft Internet Explorer: easy-to-use programs that link
you to any active site on the Internet