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The Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous. The Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, etc.; in contrast, the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The World Wide Web is merely a service accessible via the Internet, along with many other services including e-mail, file sharing, and others described below.
The best way to define and distinguish between these terms is with reference to the Internet protocol suite.
It is a collection of standards and protocols that is organized into
layers. Each layer provides the foundation and the services required by
the layer above. In this scheme, the Internet consists of the computers
and networks that can handle Internet Protocol
data packets. Once the IP infrastructure is established, then other
protocols are layered “on top.” All these higher protocols know about
the underlying network is that they are exchanging information with a
computer at another IP address. IP does not guarantee quality of
service, so it is often combined with Transmission Control Protocol to solve problems like data packets arriving out of order or not at all. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the application layer protocol that links and provides access to the files, documents and other resources of the World Wide Web.
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