The Internet is millions and millions of computers all joined together to form the largest network earth. To keep everything organized, the Internet is broken down into groups called tiers. The main tier, called Tier 1, consists of a small number of companies called Tier 1 providers. The Tier 1 providers own long-distance, high-speed fiber-optic networks called backbones.

These backbones span the major cities of the earth (not all Tier backbones go to all cities) and interconnect at special locations called network access points (NAPs). Anyone wishing to connect to any of the Tier 1 providers must pay money. The Tier 1 providers do not charge each other to connect. Tier 2 providers own smaller, regional networks and must pay the Tier 1 providers.

Most of the famous companies that provide Internet access to the general public are Tier 2 providers. Tier 3 providers are even more regional and connect to Tier 2 providers.

The piece of equipment that makes this tiered Internet concept work is called a backbone router. Backbone routers connect to more than one other backbone router, creating a big, interwoven framework for communication.

Haller is a developer behind numerous portable applications (like Portable Firefox and Portable OpenOffice.org) as a way to centralize the knowledge and development efforts of multiple. Firefox Portable is a full, up-to-date version of Firefox for Windows, only portable. A single folder holds everything, so Firefox Portable runs it on any Windows PC from a thumb drive without the.

Every Tier 1 and Tier2 provider leases connections to the Internet to companies called Internet service providers (ISPs). ISPs essentially sit along the edges of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Internet and tap into the flow. In turn, you can lease connections from an ISP to get on the Internet. ISPs come in all sizes. Comcast, the cable television provider, has multiples, huge capacity connections into the Internet, enabling its millions of customers to connect from their local machines and surf the Web.

Contrast Comcast with Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga, an ISP in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Web browsers are highly configurable. On most Web browsers, you can set default font size, choose whether to display graphics, and adjust several other settings. To change this, go to the Internet Options Control Panel applet or under the Tool menu in Internet Explorer.

The General tab has the most basic features of Internet Explorer: the home page, tab management, your browsing history, searching, and other appearance controls. If you want to delete or change how Internet Explorer stores the Web sites you've visited, use this tab. The Security tab enables you to set how Internet Explorer safeguards your Web browsing.

Each setting can be adjusted for a particular zone, such as the Internet, your local intranet, trusted sites, and restricted sites. You can configure which Web sites fall into which zones. Once you've picked a zone to control, you can set Internet Explorer's security level. The Privacy tab works a lot like the Security tab, except it controls privacy matters, such as cookies, location tracking, pop-ups, and whether browser extensions will run in private browsing mode. Go here if you don't like the idea of Web sites tracking your browsing history (through cookies and other things, too, like authenticate users). The Content tab controls what your browser will and will not display. This time however, it enables you to gate access to insecure or objectionable site- a practice called content filtering- using certificates and a parental control tool called Family Safety, which lets system admins restrict Web, game, and app usage and even controlling when an account can log in.

The Connection tab lets you set up a VPN or Proxy. Many corporations use a proxy server to filter employee Internet access, and when you are on their corporate network, you need to set your proxy settings within the Web browser. A proxy server is software that enables multiple connections to the Internet to go through one protected computer. Applications that want to access Internet resources send requests to the proxy server instead of trying to access the Internet directly, which both protects the client computers and enables the network admin to monitor and restrict Internet access.