Two or more computers and peripheral equipment (e.g., printers) that are connected with one another for the purpose of exchanging data electronically. Two basic network types are local area networks (LANs) and wide-area networks. Wide-area networks connect computers and smaller networks to larger networks over greater geographical areas, including different continents. Communications may occur over cables, fibre optics, or satellites, but most computer users access the network with a modem, using telephone lines. The largest wide-area network is the Internet. In the 1990s the World Wide Web was introduced and became the most popular way to access other Internet sites.

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Intergalactic Computer Network can be said to be the first conception of what would eventually become the Internet. The Internet Society has used a short form Galactic Network for the same thing. J.C.R. Licklider used the term at ARPA in 1963, addressing his colleagues as "Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network".

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