Reduce It: LANs, WANs and the Internet

The internet is made up of billions of small computer networks (LANs) which are connected
together to form the largest Wide Area Network (WAN) in the world.

A large part of the Internet is the 'World Wide Web" ( WWW). The WWW is made up of web
sites that have one or more web pages. This is the part of the Internet that you probably use
most of the time.

But the Internet isn't just the web pages. It also consists of:
 Email and Instant Messaging systems
 Forums where people can seek help and advice about a topic
 Social networking and blogs
 Research databases used by universities and large companies
 The Cloud, where files can be stored, online applications used, media streamed etc

No-one 'owns' the Internet. This is because it is made up of billions of LANs scattered around
the globe. Each LAN is owned by an individual or organisation who is responsible for the
hardware and maintenance of their own equipment.

In order for data to be sent via these LANs, and thus via the internet, everyone has to follow a
set of protocols or rules. This ensures that data can be sent and received from anywhere.

Table 1 – Write down the 20 most important words in the text above

LANS Internet Responsible

Forums
World Wide Web maintenance Scattered
Blogs
WWW rules Globe
Social networking
Cloud WAN Data Hardware

Wide Area Network Internet Equipment

Protocols

Table 2 – Reduce these to the 8 most important words

World Wide Web WAN LANS Cloud

Wide Area Network Social Networking Internet

WWW

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