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A web is a trap which ensnares anything which steps onto it as though it were hit by a throwing net. The victim becomes entangled and cannot move, melee attack, or use ranged weapons until they slip out of the web. Webs found on the Dungeon floor will not break after a creature escapes. Webs can be found in certain rare Dungeon vaults and the Crypt, but they are mostly found in huge numbers all over the Spider's Nest. Temporary webs, which are destroyed after the victim escapes, can be created by jumping spiders or the Ensnare spell. Webs can be used against careless enemies, more so than other traps. The natives of the Spider's Nest are immune to webs, but uniques and residents of the Lair aren't. You can stab enemies that walk into one. Prior to 0.28, web immunity was set by categories of monsters instead of with a flag. Prior to 0.26, triggering a web trap alerted nearby monsters with the web sense flag. Prior to 0.25, monsters could not be created on traps (including webs). This meant you couldn't summon monsters on a web tile, or use Animate Dead on corpses that were in webs. Prior to 0.23, giant-sized monsters were immune to webs and would destroy webs as they walked through them. Prior to 0.20, webs from jumping spiders and Ensnare were permanent. So you could have a jumping spider surround a staircase with webs, allowing you to trap enemies as you stair danced. Prior to 0.19, all webs were destroyed after a creature escaped from one. Therefore, it was often optimal to break webs as you explored.
Imagine you're in a room full of people from different countries, and everyone only speaks his or her native language. In order to communicate, you'd have to come up with a standard set of rules and vocabulary. That's what makes the Internet so remarkable: It's a system that lets different computer networks communicate with each other using a standardized set of rules. Without rules, these computer networks wouldn't be able to communicate with each other. Think for a minute about the scope of the Internet. It's a collection of inter-networked computer systems that spans the entire globe. It depends on several sets of rules called protocols. These protocols make it possible for computer communication across networks. It also relies on a huge infrastructure of routers, Network Access Points (NAPs) and computer systems. Then there are the satellites, miles of cable and hundreds of wireless routers that transmit signals between computers and networks.
Cables crisscross countries and oceans, crossing borders and linking some of the world's most remote locations to everyone else. And the Internet is still growing. More computers link to it every day, and various organizations and companies are working to extend Internet access to countries that aren't yet connected. The Internet is a giant system made up of much smaller systems. If it's one thing, does it have a single owner? Is there some person or entity that controls the Internet? Is it possible for someone to own something that spans nations and oceans? Keep reading to find out. If you think of the Internet as a unified, single entity, then no one owns it. There are organizations that determine the Internet's structure and how it works, but they don't have any ownership over the Internet itself. No government can lay claim to owning the Internet, nor can any company.
The Internet is like the telephone system -- no one owns the whole thing. The Internet consists of lots of different bits and pieces, each of which has an owner. Some of these owners can control the quality and level of access you have to the Internet. They might not own the entire system, but they can impact your Internet experience. The physical network that carries Internet traffic between different computer systems is the Internet backbone. In the early days of the Internet, ARPANET served as the system's backbone. Today, several large corporations provide the routers and cable that make up the Internet backbone. These companies are upstream Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Then you have all the smaller ISPs. Many individual consumers and businesses subscribe to ISPs that aren't part of the Internet backbone. These ISPs negotiate with the upstream ISPs for Internet access. Cable and DSL companies are examples of smaller ISPs. Such companies are concerned with what the industry calls the last mile -- the distance between the end consumer and Internet connectivity.
Within the backbone are Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), which are physical connections between networks that allow data exchanges. For example, while Sprint, Verizon and AT&T provide part of the Internet backbone's infrastructure, the three networks aren't intertwined. They connect together at an IXP. Several companies and non-profit organizations administer IXPs. The individual computer networks that make up the Internet can have owners. Every ISP has its own network. Several nations' governments oversee computer networks. Many companies have local area networks (LANs) that link to the Internet. Each of these networks is both a part of the Internet and its own separate entity. Depending on local laws, the owners of these networks can control the level of access users have to the Internet. You might consider yourself to be an owner of the Internet. Do you own a device that you use to connect to the Internet? If so, that means the device you own becomes part of the enormous inter-networked system.
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