Online Dictionary : T : the network
the network

2 definitions found

the network - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  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 "Schrodinger'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)
  

the network - 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.