The Internet

The Internet has already entered our ordinary life. Everybody knows that the Internet is a global computer network, which embraces hundred of millions of users all over the world and helps us to communicate with each other.

Most of the Internet host computers are in the United States of America. It is clear that the accurate number of users can be counted fairly approximately, nobody knows exactly how many people use the Internet today, because there are hundred of millions of users and their number is growing.

Some computers like servers share data, others just surf the web as clients downloading the data.

Nowadays the most popular Internet service is e-mail. Most of the people use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages. They can do it either they are at home or in the internet clubs or at work. Other popular services are available on the Internet too. It is reading news, available on some dedicated news servers, telnet, FTP servers, etc.

The Internet is very helpful, because it's a huge database of knowledge, from the pictures of family trips to an analysis of quantum mechanics. Everyone should have the Internet because of its near instantaneous communication and huge wealth of knowledge. But how to go on the Internet and do a search for information we need. There are two ways to do it.

The first is when you know an internet address of data you need and the second one is when you try to find information you need by using a search program. In the beginning we have got to enter any browser you like. It could be an Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Opera, etc. If we have a broadband connection, we connect to the Internet at once. If not, we have to set up and connect to our dial-up service. Finally, if we want to find some information in the Internet, we are to type an address of this data in the browser we use or simply use the existing search-programs such as the google search program, rambler search program, yandex search program or yahoo search program.

They are very simple and popular networks of sites. In these programs we can just type the word or name of thing, we would like to find and then press enter. A search program solves this problem. We get our results in the same window. After we get our results, we simply choose whatever site best matches our query or keep searching.

Besides data, one can get from the Internet, we can also send and receive e-mail or electronic mail. This internet service is cheaper than ordinary mail and much quicker. It is becoming popular day by day. We can get some news from the Internet, because there are many informational servers in the web.

Nowadays we no longer have to own a computer to access the Internet. Now,-devices such as Web TV allow our television to browse the Web and use Electronic Mail. Cellular phones are now also dialing up the Internet to provide E-mail and answering machine services.

Problems

However, there are some problems. The most important problem is security. When you send an e-mail, your message can travel through many different networks and computers. The data is constantly being directed towards its destination by special computers called routers. Because of this, it is possible to get into any of the computers along the route, intercept and even change the data being sent over the Internet. But there are many encoding programs available. Notwith-standing, these programs are not perfect and can easily be cracked.

Another big and serious problem of the net is control. Yes, there is no effective control in the^Internet, because a huge amount of information circulating through the net. It is like a tremendous library and market together. In the future, the situation might change, but now we have what we have. It could be expressed in two words— an anarchist's dream.

Last week, in a private rehabilitation clinic outside Edinburgh, Leo Edwards, a sixteen-year-old schoolboy, was going through severe withdrawal symptoms.The boy's addiction had nothing to do with alcohol, drugs, gambling or food. His problem was 'Net obsession'— an over-dependency on the Internet.

An international group of psychologists has recently suggested that anyone who surfs the Internet for long periods is clinically ill and needs medical treatment. According to their report, Internet addicts should be treated in the same way as alcoholics, drug addicts, compulsive gamblers and people with eating disorders.

Leo Edwards is not an isolated case. Russell Hopkins, aged fifteen, from Gateshead in north-east England, is a typical online addict.

Every day after school, and after dinner until three or four in the morning, he will be found in his room surfing the Net or playing computer games. By the end of the day he will have spent more than six hours online. Understandably, his parents are extremely worried. Not only has his school work suffered, but Russell's addiction has also destroyed his social life and his spare-time interests. For instance, he has just dropped out of his school's basketball team in order to spend more time at his computer. Instead of spending next weekend having a good time out with friends, he'll be spending it indoors surfing the Internet.

Russell has recently joined an Internet online support group. It may seem ironic that many of the support groups for Internet addicts are online but at least Russell has sought help. Not everyone does. Dr Ann Hoffman, who runs an online support group, says, "People don't realise that being online for more than four hours a day amounts to addiction and that they have a serious problem. I predict that the number of people who join online support groups will have risen dramatically within three years."