Let's face it. This Internet stuff is a lot to digest. Not only do we have to master hardware and software that can reduce us to profanity and/or tears, but we have to acquire an entire new language, as well. Unfortunately, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing because the buzzwords are regularly butchered and used incorrectly. But hey, who's to know? One of the most prevalent misunderstandings arises from the tendency of people to use the words "Internet'' and "World Wide Web'' interchangeably.

"Surf the Web,'' "Surf the Net,'' "Are you on the Internet?'' "Can your computer access the Web?'' Is there a difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? Yes. Will trying to discern the difference send you straight to the Kleenex box? Not a chance.

Actually, the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web is very simple. For the sake of simplicity, the Internet is essentially hardware with its own special software called IP, short for Internet protocol, that only IT people ever have to worry about. The World Wide Web is essentially software.

The Internet is about 30 years old while the web is about ten years old.

The Internet is simply a global network connecting millions of computers. The computer you are using to access the web, the computer I am using to email this article to The Royal Gazette , and all the computers in between are considered independent hosts on the Internet. Using an analogy from CNET, the Internet can be thought of as a "mass transit system, with a few main subway lines that intersect at certain points. Connecting to the subway lines are commuter rails, bus lines, and ferry boats that spread out and criss-cross the metropolitan area.'' This global association of computers allows us to access information from virtually any computer in the world that is hooked up to the Internet.

The Internet grew out of an experiment begun in the 1960s by the US Department of Defence. They wanted to create a computer network that would continue to function in the event of a disaster, such as a nuclear war. If part of the network was damaged or destroyed, the rest of the system still had to work.

That network was the so-called ARPANET, which linked US scientific and academic researchers. It was the forerunner of today's Internet. In 1985, the National Science Foundation (NSF) created NSFNET, a series of networks for research and education communication. Based on ARPANET protocols, the NSFNET created a national backbone service, provided free to any US research and educational institution. At the same time, regional networks were created to link individual institutions with the national backbone service. Then corporations such as Sprint and MCI began to build their own networks, which they linked to NSFNET.

Only with this global network of computers in place is the World Wide Web able to exist. The Web is a system of Internet servers that contain documents that are written and formatted using the same type of programming language, called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML.

These documents, or Web Sites, are able to be retrieved and viewed when you enter a Web Site address in your browser, because you are actually sending a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command to the Web server directing it to find and transmit the document or Web page you requested. That's the http:/ part of the web address. In other words, because all of the Web Sites that make up the World Wide Web are formatted using the same programming language, and because all browsers know how to request these Web Site files, we are able to browse, or surf, the Web.

The World Wide Web is essentially software, and all software needs hardware.

The HTML and HTTP software languages were first developed in Switzerland between 1989 and 1991. There is other software that runs over the Internet such as Usenet News Groups, IRC Chat software, and Instant Messaging systems, but the Web is the most popular method of using the Internet, after Email.

That is why the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same.

Could the Web exist without the Internet? No. Could the Internet exist without the Web? Yes and it did for about 20 years, but it was not as nearly as much fun!