Internet != internet

[Jernej Horvat]

Monday 22 November 2004 19:33, Ales Kosir >

> Nisem preprican, ce ste vsi razumeli, da sem govoril zgolj o popravljanju
> besede mreza z omrezjem in nic o I|internetu, ki se v slovenscini imenuje
> internet.

to debato smo ze imeli 25.10.2002 ;}

On the Internet and internets

A word on "the Internet," and on "internets" in general, is in order. In 
print, the difference between the two seems slight: one is always 
capitalized, one isn't.

The distinction between their meanings, however, is significant. The Internet, 
with a capital "I," refers to the network that began its life as the ARPAnet 
and continues today as, roughly, the confederation of all TCP/IP networks 
directly or indirectly connected to commercial U.S. backbones.
Seen close up, it's actually quite a few different networks - commercial 
TCP/IP backbones, regional TCP/IP networks, corporate and U.S. government 
TCP/IP networks, and TCP/IP networks in other countries - interconnected by 
high-speed digital circuits.

A lowercase internet, on the other hand, is simply any network made up of 
multiple smaller networks using the same internetworking protocols. An 
internet (little "i") isn't necessarily connected to the Internet (big "I"), 
nor does it necessarily use TCP/IP as its internetworking protocol. There are 
isolated corporate internets, and there are Xerox XNS-based internets and 
DECnet-based internets.

The new term "intranet" is really just a marketing term for a TCP/IP-based 
"little i" internet, used to emphasize the use of technologies developed and 
introduced on the Internet within a company's internal corporate network. An 
"extranet," on the other hand, is an internet that connects partner 
companies, or a company to its distributors, suppliers, and customers.

Odlomek je iz knjige ("biblije" DNS) DNS and BIND
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