You’ve heard all about it, you’ve seen the adverts for Hyndburn Life, but if you’ve never used the internet before – so you may be wondering, “what exactly is the internet?” 

The internet is a huge network of computers that covers the whole world; and despite what you may think, it’s been around in one form or another for over thirty years now.  It’s been during the last ten years that the internet has seen a huge surge in popularity and sophistication though.  This network allows computers in different parts of the world to communicate with each other and swap information, mainly over telephone lines or various other cables.

The most well known part of the internet is called the world wide web; and when we talk about the internet, we’re usually referring to the www. 

So what are these computers that make up the network, and what information do they swap?  Well – take Hyndburn Life as an example.  The computer you’re using right now – probably somewhere in Hyndburn – is part of this internet network; and when you log into Hyndburn Life your computer finds this web site and displays it on your screen.  The Hyndburn Life web site is stored on another computer, called a server, and in this case the server is in London.  So every time you click on your screen and move pages or ask Hyndburn Life to do anything, your computer communicates with the server in London and shows the results on your screen.  And how long does this take?  Not long, depending on your connection a few seconds at the longest.  Magic, hey?