Machines on one network can communicate with machines on other networks, and send files, and other information back and forth. The Internet, sometimes called "the Net", is a network that allows users at any one computer, if they have permission, to get information from any other computer and sometimes talk directly to users at other computers worldwide. The Internet is enormously valuable, enabling capability for so many people and organizations. It also constitutes a shared global resource of information, knowledge, and means of collaboration, and cooperation among countless diverse communities. The Internet is basically the world's largest computer network. .
The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The history of the Internet begins at the height of the cold war in the 1960's. It was under the leadership of the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency also called ARPA. The Internet grows from a paper architecture into a small network called ARPANET intended to promote the sharing of super-computers amongst researchers in the United States. In 1962, the RAND corporation began research and distributed communication networks for military command and control. In 1965, ARPA sponsored research into a cooperative network of time-sharing computers. Delegates at a symposium for the Association for Computer Machinery in Gatlingbert, Tennessee discussed the first plans for the ARPANET in 1967. Researchers at four United States campuses created the first hosts of the ARPANET in 1969 connecting Stanford Research Institute, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and University of Utah. Between 1970 and 1973, the ARPANET was a success even though it was designed to allow scientists to share data and access remote computers. Email quickly became the most popular application. The ARPANET became a high-speed digital post office as people used it to collaborate on research projects and discuss topics of various interests.