Internet:

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that interchange data by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol suite (TCP/IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local toglobal scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic fiber cables, wireless connections, and other technologies.
The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in every-day speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks, such as FidoNet have remained separate). During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year, with a brief period of explosive growth in 1996 and 1997. This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.