Even though the Internet is a global network， in many ways， it resembles a small town， with similar services. Let's say you want to send or receive your mail. The Internet has electronic post offices. There are online libraries you can use any time of the day or night， with millions of books and periodicals with unlimited browsing. Chat rooms are the Internet equivalent of 24-hour coffee shops， with people eager to gab anytime you want. With the explosive growth of the World Wide Web， you can shop， order a pizza， preview a movie， and listen to radio stations from around the world. All of these represent different ways of using the Internet.

　　In the real world you can travel to different places over the same network of roads， but using different modes of transportation. You might use a car for one purpose and a truck for something else. Getting around on the Internet works much the same way.

　　To understand the Internet， it is helpful to realize that many different kinds of communication go on at the same time. You use different software programs to accomplish different tasks： for instance， a web browser to access shopping sites and an e-mail program to send and receive messages.

　　Some programs， such as Netscape Communicator， contain more than one kind of program. Communicator has a web browser， called Netscape Navigator， an e-mail program and a newsreader. （In later articles， we will explain what each of these programs do.） You can also use more specialized and sophisticated software， such as Eudora， a stand-alone e-mail program， or combine different software packages together into a system that works for you.