Connecting to the Internet

Listed at left are the essential parts of your connection: your personal computer, your modem, a phone line, and your Internet service provider.

You can learn about the role of each part by placing your mouse pointer over the part you want to learn about.

Your Personal Computer

Your personal computer is where Netscape Communicator is running. When you want to use the Internet, your computer uses Communicator's connection software and your modem to dial the phone number of your Internet service provider's computer.

Your Modem

Your modem is a critical part of your connection to the Internet. Without it, you could not connect. A modem translates computer data into a stream of sounds that travel along the phone line to your Internet service provider. Your Internet service provider has another modem at its end of the phone line that translates the stream of sounds back into computer data.

A Telephone Line

To use the Internet, your personal computer needs a way to exchange data with your Internet service provider's computer. A telephone line provides this physical link to your Internet service provider's computer. You can use any ordinary phone line--your home phone line, a hotel phone line, or even, in some places, a pay phone line.

Internet Service Provider

An Internet service provider is your gateway to the Internet. Your provider's computer answers the phone call from your personal computer. When it answers the call, the two computers can "talk" to one another over the phone line. Your Internet service provider's computer is permanently conntected to the Internet and takes care of passing information back and forth between your computer and the Internet.

The Internet

The Internet is a global network of computers that cooperate to exchange information. Many of the computers on the Internet, such as your Internet service provider's computer, are permanently connected together with fiber-optic lines that can carry data at very high rates of speed. Using the Internet, you can exchange information with any other user or computer linked to the network.