Apple IP (AppleShare IP) Gateway - Manual (Page 10)

About IP networks
The Internet Protocol (IP) and its companion, the Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP), were first developed as part of a United States defense
research effort some twenty years ago. Since then, TCP/IP has become the
international standard for heterogeneous networking, in which many different
computer types can interoperate and share information and services.
TCP/IP can be used for local area networking, in which, for example, clients
access data from a UNIX
® host. It can also be used for giant internetworks,
composed of hundreds of local networks linked by a wide variety of
communications methods. The best known of these giants is the Internet, which
is often regarded as the prototype of the Information Superhighway. Like
TCP/IP itself, the Internet began as a U.S. defense project. It has since grown
into an international web linking universities, research centers, corporations,
and, increasingly, private citizens, who are gaining access by the thousands
every month. Note that this Internet is always spelled with a capital I. A
lowercase internet can be any interconnected set of networks, whether based on
TCP/IP, AppleTalk, or some other protocol. The Apple IP Gateway provides
access to any TCP/IP network or internet, including the Internet itself.
2 Chapter 1 / About the Apple IP Gateway