- BEYOND THE PC -

"Surfing the WEB"

To clear up a lot of confusion, the World Wide Web (WWW) is comprised of 4 elements:  1): The `at home' (or work) Users (you folks) and your PC/MAC workstations; 2): The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that connects you to the Web;  3): The Web Sites  (like this one - that are the only real reason for the Web to exist at all); and 4): The Internet which is the communications media that makes all of this possible.  Based on these facts of life, "ISP" is really a misnomer (should be "WWWSP" - for "World Wide Web Service Provider") - but that is all semantics.  The way you connect to the Web and what you do from there is discussed in more detail in "Getting on line".