This is a nearly impossible question to answer, but the most common attempt to do so describes it as a network of networks. At Webster University, we have a connection to the Internet which gives computers on our network access to the tools and resources that are "out there." These are accessible through different programs which are run on a computer here at Webster (or at home if you have a modem and a commercial account) and which connect to information made available to the general public, or made available only to people with specific accounts and passwords.
Netscape is an example of one such program, which allows you to navigate from computer to computer across the Internet. You follow links between these computers that are (usually) accessible to anyone at all.
Examples of information made available on the Internet are databases, movie reviews, news services, chat groups, mailing lists, library catalogs, virtual museums, interactive games, imagebases, free software, annotated bibliographies, educational resources, weather reports, radio broadcasts and much, much more.
As you can see, with such a range of information available via the Internet, and with more being added every day, access to the Internet is a bridge to an unbounded, amorphous collection of resources.
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