computers

Visualization of the various routes through a portion of the Internet

In the general sense, an internet (with a lowercase "i", a shortened form of the original inter-network) is a computer network that connects several networks. As a proper noun, the Internet is the publicly available internationally interconnected system of computers (plus the information and services they provide to their users) that uses the TCP/IP suite of packet switching communications protocols. Thus, the largest internet is called simply "the" Internet. The art of connecting networks in this way is called internetworking.

A computer network is a system for communication among two or more computers.

Computer networks may be categorized with respect to range:

• personal area network (PAN)

  • wireless PAN

• local area network (LAN)

  • wireless LAN

• metropolitan area network (MAN)

• wide area network (WAN)

• (Tiny area network (TAN)

Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.

Malicious websites may attempt to install spyware on readers' computers. In this screenshot a spamblog has triggered a pop-up that offers spyware in the guise of a security upgrade.

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This animation moves at 2 frames per second. At this rate, the individual frames should be discernible.