Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

network, the
     
        1.  (Or "the net") The union of all the
        major noncommercial, academic and hacker-oriented networks,
        such as {Internet}, the old {ARPANET}, {NSFnet}, {BITNET}, and
        the virtual {UUCP} and {Usenet} "networks", plus the corporate
        in-house networks and commercial {time-sharing} services (such
        as {CompuServe}) that gateway to them.
     
        A site was generally considered "on the network" if it could
        be reached by {electronic mail} through some combination of
        Internet-style (@-sign) and UUCP ({bang-path}) addresses.
        Since the explosion of the Internet in the mid 1990s, the term
        is now synonymous with the Internet.
     
        See {network address}.
     
        2.  A fictional conspiracy of libertarian
        hacker-subversives and anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers
        described in Robert Anton Wilson's novel "Schrodinger's Cat",
        to which many {hackers} have subsequently decided they belong
        (this is an example of {ha ha only serious}).
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1999-01-26)