I always thought that Internet with capital "I" meant the Internet between
countries, whilst the internet with a lower case "i" is referred to by the
press as an intranet within a corporate structure. Both run IP but within
different environments.
Just my 2 cents.........
Jim
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Joe Touch <touch(_at_)ISI(_dot_)EDU> on 07/07/2000 10:04:04 AM
Sent by: Joe Touch <touch(_at_)ISI(_dot_)EDU>
To: TSIGARIDAS PANAGIOTIS <P(_dot_)TSIGARIDAS(_at_)telestet(_dot_)gr>
cc: Eric Brunner <brunner(_at_)world(_dot_)std(_dot_)com>,
ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org (Jim
Stephenson-Dunn/C/HQ/3Com)
Subject: Re: Defining "Internet" (or "internet")
TSIGARIDAS PANAGIOTIS wrote:
I found this definition in the INTEROP Book of Carl Malamud.
The Internet (note the uppercase "I') is a network infrastructure that
supports reasearch, engineering, education, and commercial services.
The word internet (with a lowercase "i") refers to any interconnected
set of substrates (provided, of course, they are running the
internetwork protocol IP)
internet is just a truncation of internetwork, but it has come to mean
'runs IP' (and a few others, e.g., ICMP).
Internet = usually defined as a transitive closure, as in
'speaks IP and is connected to another site already on the Internet'
where the base-case is usually defined as the NSF-funded backbone
pre-1988
There are certainly internets that support the services above, but are
not connected to the "Cap-I Internet".
Joe