the network n.
1. Historicaslly, 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 time-sharing 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,
Internet address, network address. 2. Follo
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 "Schrödinger'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.
1. Historicaslly, 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 time-sharing 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,
Internet address, network address. 2. Follo
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 "Schrödinger'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.
Related:
- network, the: n. 1. The union of all the major noncommercial,
academic, and hacker-oriented networks, such as Internet... - Internet n.
The mother of all networks. First
incarnated beginning in 1969 as the ARPANET,
a U.S. Department of Defense research testbed. ... - Internet address n.
1. [techspeak] An absolute network
address of the form foo@bar.baz,
where foo is a user name, bar is a sitename, and... - UUCPNET n. obs.
The store-and-forward network consisting of all
the world's connected Unix machines (and others running some clone
of the UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) software).
Any machine reachable only via a bang path is on... - network address: n. (also `net address') As used by hackers,
means an address on `the' network (see {network, the}... - bang path: n. An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address specifying
hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee,
so called because each {hop} is signified by a {bang}... - network address n.
(also `net address') As used by
hackers,
means an address on `the' network (see the network... - hacker n.
[originally, someone who makes furniture with an
axe] 1.
A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable... - bang path n.
[now historical] An old-style UUCP
electronic-mail address specifying hops to get from some
assumed-reachable location to the addressee,
so called because each hop is signified by a bang...
