The story of the way ancient people conveyed information

Beacon towers In ancient China, in order to transmit military intelligence, people set up beacon towers and used fire and smoke to transmit messages. The beacon tower burned wolf dung during the day and lit firewood at night. Legend has it that when wolf dung is burned, a huge plume of smoke shoots straight into the blue sky, which is easier to spot than fire in the daytime, so beacon fire is sometimes called wolf smoke. When the enemy's situation was discovered, a beacon fire was set off, and word spread from stage to stage, all the way to the military camp. More than 2,700 years ago, China's beacon fire warning system was already very complete during the Zhou Dynasty. Marathon running is to report messages. In ancient times when transportation and communication were very underdeveloped, people could only send messages on two legs or on horseback. The marathon long-distance running event was established to commemorate a hero who died delivering good news more than 2,000 years ago. In 490 BC, the Greek army repelled the invasion of the Persian King Darius I's army in the Marathon Plain. The messenger Pheidippides ran from the town of Marathon to the capital Athens to report the good news. When he finished running 42.195 kilometers and rushed to the Athens Square to tell the good news, he was exhausted and fell to the ground and died. In order to commemorate the heroic deeds of this warrior, in 1896, at the world's first Olympic Games, the distance he ran was included as a long-distance running event in the Games. Using stations to convey information The invention of writing promoted people's interactions, and communication began from then on. As far back as the Zhou Dynasty, China established post stations dedicated to delivering official documents. Documents were passed from one post station to another on horseback. At the same time, a relatively complete post mail system was established to achieve fast and accurate communication. After the Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, the post information transmission system was established as the country's administrative agency. Postal mail transmits information at the speed of a horse running about 15 kilometers per hour to achieve long-distance communication. That was pretty quick at the time. Carrier pigeons and carrier monkeys In order to transmit messages, people in ancient times also came up with many strange methods, such as drift bottles, signal trees, carrier pigeons, carrier monkeys, etc. In the Bekasa region of Nigeria, monkeys are used to deliver messages. People keep the mother monkey and her cubs in two separate places, and often take the mother monkey to look for her cubs so that the mother monkey can recognize the route. When people need to communicate, they put the letter in a bamboo tube and tie it to the mother monkey, and let it go out to find its offspring. The mother monkey can always deliver the letter to its destination. Homing pigeons have been an effective tool for transmitting information since ancient times. Today, with highly developed communication technology, homing pigeons still have their place. In war, communications are crucial. However, once a nuclear war breaks out, the strong electromagnetic radiation produced by the nuclear explosion will paralyze various existing electronic communication systems, but homing pigeons can still fly freely. The Swiss Army trained and bred homing pigeons that could deliver letters in both directions. These carrier pigeons no longer carry traditional written letters, but carry computer chips contained in capsules. The coded information inside can only be read on specialized devices, and is extremely confidential. Homing pigeons may even become special messengers. The emergence of the post office It is generally believed that the post office was founded by the Persian king Cyrus the Great. Cyrus ruled a vast empire, and messengers could no longer meet the needs of the empire by delivering letters and information. To this end, he established a postal administration department composed of many stations, which was the earliest post office. These stations were spaced at a certain distance and were responsible for taking care of the stage horses that completed one stop every day. China had a postal system a long time ago and it was basically perfected by the Tang Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty also rectified the post delivery system connecting the East and the West. In 31 BC, during the reign of Augustus, the Romans imitated such an institution and established a public inn. The station is equipped with stagecoaches with plenty of fodder and guest rooms for passing officials to stay. During the Middle Ages, Romanesque post offices had disappeared and monasteries were spread across Europe. Correspondence between monasteries took place through the use of parchment rolls called parchments. The first monastery wrote their rumors on the scroll, and each monastery that arrived added their rumors, making the scroll longer and longer. For example, the scroll conveying the news of the death of the Abbot of Saint-Veillaur was 9.5 meters long and 0.25 meters wide. It was called the Friars Post Office. The Qing Post Office was built during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (1862-1875). It was one of the thirteen major postal stations in Shanghai during the Qing Dynasty.

It has gone through different stages such as private letter bureau - foreign post office - cultural and newspaper bureau - customs and post office - Qing post office. It is the only remaining Qing Dynasty post office site in East China and is also a microcosm of China's postal history in modern times. In 1878 (the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty), Yantai's "Huayang Letters Library" established a branch in Zhoucun, which was the predecessor of the Qing postal institution in Zibo. At the end of 1900, Zhoucun Daqing Post Office was opened. In 1902, the second-class post office of the Qing Dynasty was established in Boshan, with 2 agencies at Badou and Xiye Street, 5 letter boxes, 2 village messengers, and 2 messengers from Tongyishui and Wangzhuang. There are 4 messengers from Laiwu and Tai'an. In 1904, postal agencies were established at Guangshun Road and Health Hall Pharmacy in Xiguan, Linzi. The following year, a third-class post office was set up in Huantai, and branch offices were set up in Zhangdian and Suo Town. The Zhangdian Daqing Post Office is located on the former East 4th Street of Zhangdian Street. It handles letters and remittance services for merchants. At that time, Zhoucun, Zichuan, Xincheng (Huantai) Suozhen, Zhangdian and other bureaus were subordinate to the Jinan General Administration, while Boshan, Linzi, Jinling, Zihe and other bureaus were subordinate to the Qingzhou General Administration. ? After the Revolution of 1911, the "Qing Post Office" was renamed the "China Post Office". The post office has four levels: postal clerk, postal assistant, postman, and bureau clerk. The original Zhangdian Daqing Post Office was moved to North and South Street. ? In January 1919, Linzi Zhonghua Post Office was established in Linzi City. It was initially a third-class post office and was upgraded to a second-class post office in October of the following year. There were four branch offices in the countryside: Xindian, Zihe Branch, Sun Lou Store and Xigucheng. In August 1920, Huantai County Post Office (third-class bureau), Zhangdian Post Office (third-class bureau, later upgraded to second-class bureau), Zhoucun Post Office (second-class bureau), and Boshan Post Office (second-class bureau) were established. The Huantai County Post Office has letter lockers in Beishiqiao and Patou Bridge in Caocun, which are operated by merchants. ? In 1921, Boshan Post Office added 2 village and town patrol postmen, divided into 2 north and south routes, and patrolled for a week on 3 days. There are letter lockers in Xihe, Yuanquan, Badou, Xiazhuang and Xingjiazhuang. ? In 1924, Zhangdian Zhonghua Post Office was changed into a second-class second-class bureau, renting 3 private buildings and operating money orders, insured letters, and ordinary mail. There is also a post office in Nam Dinh. ? In 1926, Zhangdian Post Office moved to the original Zhangdian Second Road (now Xiyi 1st Road), and added parcel mailing and other services. At the same time, mailboxes were set up in Fushengli and Weigu, and mailing agencies were set up in Ma Shang and Weigu respectively to handle small-amount exchange services. ? In 1931, Xindian Branch Office was upgraded to Xindian Post Office. ? In 1943, postal agencies were set up in Tieshan, Weigu and Shiqiao, which were later changed to post offices to handle small-amount remittance business. ? In 1945, Zhangdian and Nanding were both second-class and second-class post offices. The Zhangdian Post Office is equipped with a director, two postal officers, three couriers and four coolies. There are also postal agencies in Changcheng and Mashang. ? In March 1948, the entire territory of Zibo was liberated, and the "China Post Office" was taken over by the wartime post office. ?……………… Until today’s network communication, email. The earliest envelope Before the birth of the envelope, people had a hard time keeping letters secret. In order to send letters, the ancient Greeks first shaved the slaves' hair, wrote letters on their scalps, and then sent the letters after the hair had grown back. The recipient could read the letter by shaving the slave's head. In the 10th century BC, the Assyrians in Mesopotamia used clay tablets as letter paper, engraved the content of the letter, and then put it into pottery and burned it. The recipient had to break the pottery to learn the content of the letter. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, and Qin and Han Dynasties in China, wooden slips were common letters. Wooden tablets are generally 1 foot long and about 0.33 meters long, so they are also called ruler tablets. The envelope is made of wooden boards, in the shape of a carp, with a bottom and a cover clamped on the outside of the ruler. Three grooves are carved on the wooden board, tied three times with a rope, and then tied through a square hole, with the thread ends or crosses The wood was inspected everywhere, sealed with clay, and stamped with a seal as a verification to prevent unauthorized demolition. This kind of wooden board can be regarded as the earliest envelope in Chinese history. After Chinese fire paint was introduced to Europe, sealing paint became a magic weapon for keeping communications confidential. In 1820, the British bookseller Brewer discovered that many ladies and ladies were keen on writing letters while on vacation at the seaside, but they were afraid that the contents of the letters would be known, so he designed a batch of envelopes. These were the world's first paper commodity envelopes. In 1844, the first envelope-paste machine appeared in London. Since then, paper envelopes have become popular all over the world. Postmarks on Envelopes Today, the main purpose of postmarks is to cancel stamps. However, postmarks predate stamps by more than 400 years.

In the 1530s, the post office in Venice, Italy, first used postmarks. At that time, it was just a small stamp on the mail, indicating the name of the place where the mail was sent. Postage-paid postmarks have since appeared, but none have specific dates. In 1661, Bishop, the British Postmaster General, created the world's first dated postmark in order to check and assess whether the postman delivered the mail in a timely manner, thus perfecting the postmark and still using it today. This postmark is 179 years older than the world's first postage stamp. In 1879, the Qing government of China opened the Qing Post Office, which used the Bagua postmark. The Bagua postmark only indicates the place name, not the date. Later postmarks were gradually added with year and date marks. However, the chronology on the postmark is rather special. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the AD chronology was uniformly adopted. After entering the 20th century, the types of postmarks have continued to increase. In addition to date stamps, there are more than 10 types such as postage-paid stamps, commemorative stamps, free military postmarks, and tourist attraction commemorative stamps. The earliest one-penny stamp was invented in 1365, before Bishop invented the date postmark. In order to deal with the increasing backlog of letters due to refusal to pay postage, the Paris Post Office, France, was inspired by the postmark and printed a special small piece of paper. . There is no pattern on the piece of paper, only words printed on it. This small piece of paper with a postage paid stamp was the earliest stamp. Irishman James Chalmers printed the world's first postage stamps in 1834, which was implemented in 1838 after British Postmaster General Sir Rowland Hill reformed the postal service. Hill established a national postage rate of one penny for half an ounce and issued one-penny stamps. Punching holes in stamps In 1847, Englishman Henry Arthur invented the first stamp cutting device. Initially, the machine could only cut stamps. A year later, the inventor improved the machine and created a punch that could punch a row of small holes. In 1854, the first perforated stamp punching machine was born. Mailbox Around 1650, Paris had a post office, which was responsible for communication and postal services with other provinces and foreign countries, but residents in Paris could not communicate with each other. For this reason, in 1653, the Frenchman de Villeret made up for this defect by hanging some mail boxes on the walls at the corners of the main streets for the first time. Residents living in the city can just put the postage-paid receipt on the envelope and put the letter into the nearest mailbox. The post office staff will open the box and collect it three times a day. In 1692, there were 6 such mailboxes in the Paris Police Department, 7 in 1723, 12 in 1740, and by 1780 the number had increased to more than 500. Postcard In 1861, the American John Charlton invented the postcard in Philadelphia. Later, a businessman named Harry Lippmann added decorations to the postcard design, issued it to the public, and applied for a patent. Prepaid postcards do not require stamps. This kind of postcard was first invented by Emanuel Hermann at the Military Academy Istarted in Vienna, Austria. On October 1, 1869, the prepaid postcard was issued for the first time in the world. It had a light yellow surface and attached a stamp with a face value of 2 Kreiser. Postcards can express greetings, congratulations, apologies, etc. to relatives and friends. They cannot be replaced by other means of communication. Therefore, they are still widely used today, and there are more and more types. The decorations are becoming more and more artistic, which brings people A beautiful enjoyment. Such as birthday cards, student greeting cards, wedding cards, etc. Today, postcards have become a part of people's lives. Special postal colors The special colors of postal services in various countries around the world are set according to the traditions and habits of the country. For example, the United Kingdom uses red, the United States uses gray, and China uses green. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, at the first national postal conference held in December 1949, the issue of special postal colors was discussed. It was believed that green symbolized peace, youth and prosperity, so a resolution was made stipulating that the People's Postal Service Use green as the special color. How is international mail delivered? There are approximately 654,000 post offices of various sizes around the world, and international mail reaches 1 billion pieces every day. Millions of postal workers in the 169 member countries of the World Postal Union serve the delivery of letters.

So how is international mail delivered? For example, a man who works in Peace River, Alberta, Canada, wrote to a friend who lives near Nice in the south of France on Monday. The postman collected the mail and delivered it to the post office in the town that afternoon. Postal service personnel separate local mail from mail destined for other parts of Canada, and divide international mail into two categories: those west of the Pacific and those east of the Pacific. In the evening, the mail was loaded onto trucks and shipped to Grande Prairie, 160 kilometers away. The next morning, the two types of international mail were loaded on trucks and transported to the provincial capital Edmonton, 480 kilometers away, from the Edmonton Post Office to the airport. At the airport, westbound mail is flown to Vancouver and eastbound mail is flown to Toronto. Once the mail arrives in Toronto, it is sorted by country of destination, a process that was not completed until Thursday. An international flight departed Toronto for Paris on Thursday night, arriving on Friday morning. In Paris, mail is handled by mechanized systems. The encoding machine adds a barcode based on the postal code, indicating where the letter will be ultimately delivered. Another machine sorts the letters one by one by administrative district. Letters are sent along conveyor belts to mail bags, which are then sent to Marseille and Nice by trucks, trains and planes. The postal staff in Nice sorted the letters and took them to the post office on Saturday morning, where the postman delivered them to his friend's home. Global Express Service Ordinary postal service is not fast enough because postal workers have to handle hundreds of millions of pieces of mail, and delivery is slow. It takes days or even weeks for mail to reach its destination. In the late 1960s, companies all over the world encountered major problems in delivering mail quickly, and international express delivery companies came into being. Commercial organizations send flights to various parts of the world, most arriving within 24 hours. Air express delivery companies use the latest technology to book cargo flights and passenger aircraft slots so that they can take the fastest route at any time. Large-scale express delivery companies use computers to store flight schedules around the world. Many companies also own their own aircraft and helicopters. All express delivery companies have dedicated fleets of small trucks and motorcycles to collect and deliver mail door to door. The largest express delivery company in the United States had 418 aircraft in 1989 and processed an average of 140,000 pieces of mail every day. European express companies can deliver mail to other parts of Europe the next day, and outside Europe within two days. American express companies can deliver mail to domestic destinations on the same day or the next day. Most of the express mail is letters or small parcels, and the number of manufacturers using express delivery services to transport finished products is also increasing. In the 1970s, the total turnover of the express delivery industry doubled every two or three years, reaching an annual value of approximately US$4 billion in 1990. A rocket is used to express mail. A company in the United States has ingeniously created it. It has simple equipment and is much cheaper than a space rocket. It uses the rocket's warhead cabin to deliver mail, with a load capacity of 10 kilograms. After the rocket reaches the destination, the rocket hatch automatically opens, the mail is ejected with a parachute, and then the local post office is notified by radio to receive the mail. The rocket travels through the atmosphere very quickly, taking only 50 minutes from New York to London. The company now officially accepts postal services. Electronic messenger Electronic messenger is a letter with specific specifications. After being put into the electronic mailbox, the letter is automatically opened and scanned word by word through photoelectric devices, converting the optical signal into an electrical signal. In this way, text and image information are transmitted to distant places through the fax machine, and the original letter can be automatically destroyed. At the same time, the receiving fax machine restores the received electrical signal into an optical signal, uses photography to record the sender's handwriting on the standard letter, automatically seals it, and then outputs an address, name, letter content, and the sent letter. Exactly the same letter. No matter how far apart they are, it only takes tens of seconds for the electronic messenger to complete the entire delivery process. On June 7, 1980, the first letter traveled via satellite from London, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Toronto, Canada in just one minute. After receiving the electronic letter, the local post office delivered it to the recipient by express delivery. Stamps will become treasures by the 21st century. By the middle of the 21st century, communication will no longer require any stamps, and existing stamps will become rarities. A Belgian postal expert said with certainty that by 2040, when the stamp celebrates its 200th anniversary, it will have completed its historical mission and retired to a museum. Because computerized letter processing systems will replace the postal service.

When writing a letter, you type the first draft on a computer typewriter and revise it on the screen. When you are satisfied, you only need to enter the code number into the computer, and the letter will appear on the recipient's terminal computer. In addition, with the popularization of advanced telephone systems, people can call relatives and friends around the world at any time without writing letters. Morse sent the first telegram. On May 24, 1844, in the federal Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol Building in Washington, scientists and government officials watched Morse personally operate the telegraph machine. With a series of dot and dash signals, the city of Baltimore, 64 kilometers away, received the world's first telegram. This was the first official long-distance telegram ever sent by humans. Morse's invention opened a new page in the history of human communication. For the first time, people realized that the telegraph was useful. Among all the undertakings that use electricity to serve mankind, telegraphy is the earliest application. By connecting the user's telegraph machine to the computer network, the user can search for information and documents while sitting at home, and receive literature materials from the telegraph machine without going to the library. Reporters could send articles to newspapers thousands of miles away in front of user telegraph machines, and businessmen could use them to negotiate business. Telegraph has been widely used abroad. Early telephones Because the structures of the sending end and the receiving end of the telephone are exactly the same, in the early days of the invention of the telephone, there was only one tube on the telephone, which was used even for listening and speaking. Because the caller has to put the phone to his ear immediately after speaking and listen to what the other party is saying. If he makes a mistake while busy, many people will make a joke about talking with their ears or listening with their mouth. Today's telephones. With the development of telephones today, they are no longer what they were back then. In today's telephones, the microphone consists of two parts, one for speaking and the other for listening, which is very convenient. The listening end is equipped with a receiver, and the speaking end is equipped with a transmitter. The microphone is the part you talk to when making a phone call. It is no longer composed of metal sheets and electromagnets like the early days of telephones. Because the induced current generated by that is too small, it will be difficult to hear clearly when the conversation distance is long. Today's microphones mainly consist of a metal sheet and a small iron box filled with carbon particles, which is called a carbon particle microphone. When speaking into the microphone, sound waves push the metal sheet to vibrate back and forth, giving varying amounts of pressure to the carbon particles, causing the current to change with the change of the voice. Using this principle, the microphone converts the changes in the size of the speech sound into changes in the size of the current, and transmits it on the wire. The receiver is the part that is placed against the ear when making calls. Its structure is similar to that of the early telephones, and it still consists of an electromagnet and a metal sheet. The other party's voice is converted into a corresponding current through the microphone, which flows through the coil of the receiver, causing the metal sheet to vibrate and form sound, so that the purpose of the conversation between the two parties is achieved. Bain invented the fax machine In 1843, Bain in England invented the original fax machine. Bain cut the metal plate into the shape of characters, placed it on the insulating board, and then rubbed several metal claws on it. The claws were in contact with the metal part of the character shape or the insulating board part. Bain connected a wire to each claw, and the other end of the wire was connected to a telegraph receiver, which contained a pencil. When the claw comes into contact with or breaks away from the metal writing part, this change is transmitted to the ticker through the wire like a telegraph signal, so the pencil at one end of the ticker marks the paper. In this way, when many claws touch the metal characters at the same time, this change is transmitted to the ticker through the wire. The pencil of the ticker contacts the paper, and the paper moves according to the crimping speed of the claws, thereby drawing the shape of the text on the paper. . Radio paging system: When a person needs to talk to an elusive friend, he can call and send a signal to the paging station. The paging station converts it into a wireless signal and sends it out throughout the city. The person being paged carries a BP machine with him. A beeping sound will occur so that the callee can know who is calling him and get in touch with the caller immediately. The terminal device of the radio paging system is a receiver, also known as a BP machine, which can be worn on the belt or placed in a pocket. With the emergence of very large scale integrated circuits, BP machines can be made smaller and smaller.

The radio paging system is generally a paging system used by the postal and telecommunications departments to serve the general public users. It has a large capacity and the structure mostly adopts a single-office multi-station system, that is, a paging central office and several paging central offices are established within a wide service range. Base stations, these base stations are evenly distributed in the service area, forming a paging network. Each base station is controlled by the paging central office and sends out the same signal at the same time. At the same time, the paging central office has direct contact with the local telephone office. In this way, people can use local telephones to call the BP machine user, and the BP machine user can then receive the calling signal from the radio wave sent by the base station nearest to him. Handheld mobile phones and walkie-talkies are small wireless telephones powered by batteries. The initial products can be carried on the body. This was successfully developed during World War II and was used by soldiers for short-distance communication during combat. Large wireless phones can be mounted on tanks, military trucks and other vehicles. After the war, wireless telephones were improved and mobile communication machines were often used in patrol cars, ambulances, fire command vehicles and harbor fire boats. Mobile wireless phones were developed in the United States in the 1970s. Public security, aviation, shipping, transportation, industrial and commercial enterprises, local government and other departments use mobile phones not only as a means of communication, but also as a management tool. 90% of mobile wireless phones used in the United States are walkie-talkies. Both parties using the intercom phone make single-frequency or dual-frequency simplex group calls on designated channels. Various frequency bands are used. VHF or UHF is used for short distances, and medium, shortwave or satellite microwave transmission is used for long distances. . A quasi-duplex system has been developed for selective calling and voice-activated transmission instead of button presses; the centerless private channel network has further improved this, not only enabling dial-up calls and dual-frequency duplex calls, but also making full use of idle channels. Time execution is used to save channels. The method is to specify the channel as the mutual contact, select the channel as the call, and automatically restore it after use. Electronic Computers Appeared Before the birth of electronic computers, there were mechanical computers. In 1642, Pascal of France built the earliest decimal adding machine. In 1673, Leibniz of Germany invented the hand-cranked computer and proposed binary arithmetic. The British Babbage designed the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine in 1822 and 1834 respectively, using punched cards to automate the calculation process. In 1941, Germany's Giuseppe used electromagnetic relays to successfully trial-produce the world's first universal automatic electrical computer controlled by a binary program. In 1944, the United States' Aiken trial-produced the last mechanical computer, Mark- Machine No. 1, the predecessor of the all-electronic computer. Computers have laid the foundation for the information society. Computers can simulate and replace some of the thinking functions of the human brain, expand human information processing capabilities, improve data storage and use efficiency, and enable the sharing of information resources. Computers have penetrated into every field of human life, causing tremendous changes in the entire human society and becoming an epoch-making information revolution. The widespread application of computers has created conditions for the transition from industrialized society to information society. Fantastic Multimedia Technology Previous personal computers could only process text and numbers, that is, single media. Nowadays, personal computers can not only process words and numbers, but also process images, text, audio, video and other media. This is multimedia. Multimedia integrates technologies such as computers, televisions, video recorders, audio recorders, and game consoles to form an operating environment in which computers and users can communicate with each other. Human-machine communication is the biggest feature of multimedia. You can only watch TV and movies from the sidelines, but in multimedia, you can modify everything from graphics to colors. You can participate, change the plot, and ask the actors to perform according to your wishes. Multimedia technology integrates computer technology, audio-visual technology and communication technology, and adopts advanced digital recording and transmission methods. It can replace a variety of current household appliances and will therefore pervade all aspects of people's lives. What can multimedia do? Multimedia technology makes communication more convenient. People can use multimedia to talk to relatives, friends and customers anywhere in the world and at any time. The callers can not only hear their voices and see each other, but also save the images.

People do not need to purchase household appliances such as televisions, video recorders, personal computers, telephones, and radio cassette players separately. All these functions can be included in just one multimedia computer. It also has the function of an audio-visual library. People can read various electronic magazines with pictures, sounds, and texts without leaving home. Multimedia technology can also diversify teaching, provide teachers and students with a large number of teaching resources, and provide scientists with a more convenient scientific research tool. Computer-aided design is more intuitive, and people can use it to draw more beautiful pictures and compose more beautiful music. Information Superhighway The Internet is an international network that connects many networks together and is the highest level backbone network. Below it is connected to the regional network, the regional network is connected to the wide area network, the wide area network is connected to the local area network, and many computers are connected to the local area network. In this way, many computers are connected together to achieve maximum sharing of resources. The Internet has many uses. It can be used to send emails to Internet users around the world, send meeting notices or briefings, etc., hold electronic meetings with relevant personnel scattered around the world, and create electronic mailboxes. Publishing news on the Internet can quickly spread to all parts of the world. Researchers can quickly exchange papers, reports and computer source programs. Users can freely and quickly retrieve information distributed on different networks. Users can also log in from a distance and use software and hardware resources connected to the Internet, such as a supercomputer. Various commercial data services can also be utilized through remote login. Enterprises can also use the Internet to publish advertisements