[W/K] :: network, the

  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)