If you do business with people in the computer industry, you'll probably notice that more and more, business cards contain cryptic lines of code at the bottom: Internet addresses.

The truth of the matter is this. Everybody but you uses the Internet now.The Internet started out as a way to link government computers. Later, college computers were added. And then real people started using the net. People who run businesses. And then home computer users, some of whom stare into computer screens far after the time they should be getting some sleep every night.

Because the Internet is very, very big indeed.

Consider this true story. I was looking into urban legends on an Internet Usenet, stopped to read a question posted by a woman in Norway, and got involved in a long digression about Freemasons, in which I found the following, sent minutes earlier by a man in Tennessee:

"The Internet is like a giant jellyfish. You can't step on it. You can't go around it. You've got to go through it." - John Evans, president of News Corp.'s Electronic Data division, on why that company purchased Delphi Internet Services Corp.

The statement, while apocryphal in origin, is true.

Delphi Internet Services Inc., formerly General Videotex Corp., is probably the best known of several providers of Internet access to home PC users. Delphi is also the biggest of the providers who provide full access to the net.

That's the way many users refer to the Internet. The net. If you don't say "the net" when talking about the Internet, you risk sounding like a newbie, who is someone new to using the net.

The net is vast, its rules and protocols are myriad, and probably the best known guide to using the Internet is "The Whole Internet Users Guide & Catalog" by Ed Krol, published by O'Reilly & Associates in Sebastapol, Calif.

The net is not easy to use if you're used to using a Mac or a PC-type computer. Since this is serious stuff, it's run by people who use arcane UNIX commands. Krol's guide to the Internet is thorough and easy to read.

Another serious guide to using the net comes from Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference Books in New York. "A DOS User's Guide to the Internet: E-mail, Netnews, and File Transfer with UUCP" is a very good, very thorough book on how to maneuver through the Internet.

Both books also explain what the Internet is, besides being vast. It's also anarchy, and designed to be just that way.

The Internet is not something you can get into by sending in a card, like you can with Prodigy. The Internet is a conglomeration of completely independent computers, linked together very informally. If one computer goes down, hardly anyone notices. When a new computer comes into the net, very few people notice.

The amount of information available is so huge that you need special ways of looking at it so you aren't overwhelmed. Finding what you need is easy once you know what you're doing.

The Internet offers a cosmos of data, software and services, but the main reason a lot of people use it is because you can send E-mail all over the world on an almost real-time basis.

You send a message to me, and I'll have it in minutes or hours, depending on how often I dial into the net to see what's going on. With Delphi's Internet services, users get a bleep on the screen when new mail comes in.

It allows people in Norway to argue about Freemasons with people in Tennessee, and for people in Santa Monica, Calif., to dive in for no reason other than it's fun to do so.

Of course, as an organized anarchy, Internet can get weird. There are discussion groups devoted to just about every bizarre activity imaginable.

There is also IRC.

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Dozens of Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, groups are going on at any given moment. Enter one that looks non-threatening, like a Coffee House discussion, and you're going to see your screen filled with steadily increasing numbers of single-line messages devoted to just about anything. Someone will probably say hi. You're expected to jump in and say something, too.

Software to do anything you can imagine is available, if you look in the right places. Downloads are quick and simple, governed, as they are, by the net and not by your computer. You transfer the software into your provider's computer and then leisurely download, when you have time.

Internet access costs somewhere between $10 and $23 a month, depending on where you go and if you want full services. You probably do. Downloading software is a pain with anything but full services because you have to send someone a message to send you the software, and then wait for it.

The Internet is much like swimming. There's only so much you can learn by reading, and then you really do have to dive in.

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