The Network ==>
network, the
1. <jargon, networking> (Or "the net") The union of all the major
noncommercial, academic and hacker-oriented networks, such as Internet, the old
ARPANET, NSFnet, BITNET, and the virtual UUCP and Usenet "networks", plus the
corporate in-house networks and commercial time-sharing services (such as
CompuServe) that gateway to them.
A site was generally considered "on the network" if it could be reached by
electronic mail through some combination of Internet-style (@-sign) and UUCP
(bang-path) addresses. Since the explosion of the Internet in the mid 1990s, the
term is now synonymous with the Internet.
See network address.
2. <body> A fictional conspiracy of libertarian hacker-subversives and
anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers described in Robert Anton Wilson's novel
"Schrödinger's Cat", to which many hackers have subsequently decided they belong
(this is an example of ha ha only serious).
[Jargon File]
(1999-01-26)
Nearby terms:
Network Solutions, Inc. « network storm « Network
Termination « network, the » Network Time
Protocol » network transparency » NetX
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