The Internet

The Internet is a global system of separate computer networks that are linked together. It is often described as a network of networks, because it is built from many separate networks rather than being one single network.

The separate networks are owned and run by many different organisations, and they are located in countries all over the world. Each network is looked after by the organisation that runs it, but the networks are connected together, so a device on one network can communicate with a device on another. For example, a dental practice's network in Bristol and a film studio's network in South Korea can send data to each other even though neither organisation runs the other's network.

No single person, company or government owns or controls the whole Internet. Ownership is shared between all the organisations that run the separate networks that make it up. This shared ownership is what makes the Internet worldwide: no one organisation provides every part of it. It is therefore wrong to describe the Internet as a single network owned by one company or by the government.