network, the

network, the n.  1. 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 is generally considered `on the
   network' if it can be reached through some combination of
   Internet-style (@-sign) and UUCP (bang-path) addresses.  See
   {bang path}, {{Internet address}}, {network address}.  2. A
   fictional conspiracy of libertarian hacker-subversives and
   anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers described in Robert Anton
   Wilson's novel "Schr"odinger's Cat", to which many hackers
   have subsequently decided they belong (this is an example of {ha
   ha only serious}).

   In sense 1, `network' is often abbreviated to `net'.  "Are
   you on the net?" is a frequent question when hackers first meet
   face to face, and "See you on the net!" is a frequent goodbye.