A Hitchhiker's Guide to Life on the Internet

This paper provides a survey level introduction to the Internet, the high-speed communications network that provides access to remote supercomputers, libraries, and other specialized information services. In addition to describing the physical and logical topology of the network, it describes the supercomputing and network-oriented visualization capabilities offered by one node on the Internet, the Natl. Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Petroleum engineering studies are used as vehicles throughout the paper.