18. Connecting to the Internet

Connecting to the Internet

The Internet is a vast, worldwide network of computers that offers information, communication, online shopping, and entertainment for the whole family.

There are two ways to connect to the Internet:

• In a direct or network connection, your computer has a live, high-speed broadband connection to the Internet all the time. This is common for workplace computers on companywide networks. At home, cable modems and DSL offer direct connections.

• In a modem or dial-up connection, your computer uses a modem to dial in to a server, which gives it access to the Internet. This functionality is available to cell phone users utilizing tethering or dial-up networking (DUN). Access speed is generally ...

Get Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Visual QuickStart Guide now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.