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Ever stop and think about how cool a refrigerator is? (pun intended)

And what makes refrigerators even cooler appliances is that they're not just one big icebox. You got the crisper section with vents to keep veggies fresh. You got the dairy section with a sealed drawer to keep cheese nice and dry. Then there's the super-insulated freezer section, the easy-to-reach condiments section, and with each section comes the great things it contains.

Put it all together and you got a refrigerator.

That's what the Internet is like.

It's really a large container that holds a bunch of sub-containers together. In this case, all the containers are networks. So the Internet is a network that holds a collection of sub-networks. So what are these sub-networks? Here's the biggies:

* World Wide Web (that's right, the Web and the Internet aren't the same thing!)

* email

* FTP

* Chat

* Telnet

* Gopherspace

* P2P

* Instant Messenging

And just as each section in the fridge is different (e.g., vented drawer), so too, each sub-network of the Internet is different. And since each sub-network is different, you use a different type of software to work with it.

For example, you use a browser (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer) for the World Wide Web. You use an email client (e.g., Eudora or Outlook Express) for email. You use FTP software for FTP, and so on.

And when you put all the sections together, you've got the Internet.

And that's why the Internet is like a refrigerator.

Copyright (c) Grant Pasay 2005. All rights reserved. You may forward this article in its entirety to anyone you wish.

About the author: Grant Pasay is a writer, musician, moviemaker, and author of the new eBook, "The Internet Is Like A Refrigerator: And Other Weird Comparisons That Make it Easy to Understand Everything From AOL to Zip Files."

Check out Grant's free/brandable ebook at: http://grantpasay.com/refrigerator/