This is more thinking aloud than anything, but something just struck me:
Where exactly is the Internet?

There's all of this information, but where? Is there a computer somewhere that, if damaged, would destroy the whole Internet? Or is it another sort of dimension? You upload things to the Internet, but where do they go? The hosts? So where do the hosts upload things? Cyberspace? What's cyberspace? I mean, is it a physical thing, or a computer as I said? It's mad!

Well i don't actually know either, it's probably really simple but unless you know you'll find it to be mind-bogling.

My guess is that the internet isn't anywhere and it's constantly moving around via wires, satelites, etc.....but i probably wrong...

They're probably some controls somewhere, how else would they maintain it?
But i couldn't tell you where they are, they're probably top secret anyway....

Does anybody know?

Luke

I'd love to know. And if there are controls, how secure are they? If something happens to them, the whole Internet would have to start from scratch: Online companies, banks, everything would collapse. There'd be hell on. So are they really closely guarded and really reliable? Or is the Internet somewhere else?

there are about 10 or so mainframe computers around the world that actually hold the hard code that run the internet. the pages themselves are hosted from different people's computers. but the mainframes that hold all the info to process the commands it takes to run the internet are scattered around the world to make it harder for anyone to attack or try and shut down the internet

why would anyone shut down the internet ? Its the best form of :

Shopping , Information, remote chat, music, movie trailers,...bla bla bla. but if anyone would have the power to shut down the whole internet, he could simply ask 10c from every user to keep in running. Imagine that 10c from EVERY user. How much would that add up to ?

there are a lot of people out there that think that technology is the devil. many many people would love to see us go back to the horse and buggy days

Riiiiight ; so in order for someone who thinks that the Internet (technology) is the devil , he would have to study it so meticulously in order to bring it down. that would make him a hack of all hacks ; a rogue anti-technologist that would have to get seduced by 'the dark side'.

Ironic isnt it ?

mormons and amish people are scary. they can build a barn like no ones buisness though

Thanks everyone, that's something that would've bugged the hell out of me.

basically all the internet is is one giant DNS server. A DNS is a Domain Name Server. Or in otherwords when you type in www.wewantchicken.com/chickenstore it breaks it down into pieces and says ok www.... thats the world wide web, so its on the internet somewhere, wewantchicken.com, thats based out of some little town in iowa, then it goes to Iowa and says hey do you have a chickenstore at your site... and the site replies why yes I do here it is. Then the world wide web sends that image to your monitor.

Internet 101

It's all becoming clear now... Thanks everyone.

But let's hope that those 10 mainframes stay safe.

not a problem.... Its what we're here for