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 witheach other.
The history of Internet began in the United States in 1969. It was a military experiment, designed to help to
survive during a nuclear war, when everything around might be polluted by radiation and it would be
dangerous to get out for any living being to get some information to anywhere. Information sent over the
Internet takes the shortest and safest path available from one computer to another. Because of this, any two
computers on the net will be able to stay in touch with each other as long as there is a single route between
them. This technology was called packet switching.
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.
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.