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Networks and the Internet: Question 1

Syllabus 2.1

Multiple choice AS 1 mark

Which statement correctly distinguishes the internet from the World Wide Web?

Choose an answer to check it, then compare with the worked solution below.
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Worked solution

Why B is correct

The internet is the underlying global infrastructure: millions of interconnected networks, together with the routers, switches, cables and servers that physically move data between them, using protocols such as TCP/IP. It provides a general-purpose way for data to travel from one device to another, and it existed before the web was built on top of it.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is one particular service that runs on top of this infrastructure. It is a huge collection of linked resources (web pages, images and other files) each identified by a URL and normally requested using HTTP or HTTPS through a browser. Other services also run on the same internet infrastructure alongside the web, such as email and file transfer; the web is only one of many things the internet is used for.

So the internet is the infrastructure, and the World Wide Web is a service that uses that infrastructure. The two terms describe related but different things, which is exactly what option B states.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A swaps the two definitions the wrong way round: it describes the web as the physical infrastructure and the internet as the collection of pages, which is backwards.
  • C ignores that the two terms describe different things (infrastructure vs. a service that uses it); if they were identical, there would be no reason for two separate names.
  • D is wrong because the internet is not limited to carrying web traffic, it carries email, file transfer and many other services in addition to the web, not the other way around.

Final answer

B. The internet is the global network infrastructure; the World Wide Web is a service (linked pages and resources) that runs on top of it.