from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
the network
n.
1. Historically, the union of all the major noncommercial, academic,
and hacker-oriented networks, such as Internet, the pre-1990 ARPANET,
NSFnet, BITNET, and the virtual UUCP and {Usenet} `networks', plus the
corporate in-house networks and commercial timesharing services (such
as CompuServe, GEnie and AOL) that gateway to them. A site is
generally considered on the network if it can be reached through some
combination of Internet-style (@-sign) and UUCP (bang-path) addresses.
See {Internet}, {bang path}, {network address}.
2. Following the mass-culture discovery of the Internet in 1994 and
subsequent proliferation of cheap TCP/IP connections, "the network" is
increasingly synonymous with the Internet itself (as it was before the
second wave of wide-area computer networking began around 1980).
3. A fictional conspiracy of libertarian hacker-subversives and
anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers described in Robert Anton Wilson's
novel Schrodinger's Cat, to which many hackers have subsequently
decided they belong (this is an example of {ha ha only serious}).
In sense 1, the network is often abbreviated to the net. "Are you on
the net?" is a frequent question when hackers first meet face to face,
and "See you on the net!" is a frequent goodbye.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
network, the
The Network
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)