internetting

1. 1
   nouncolloquialuncountablebefore a noun

   The activity of using the Internet, especially searching for information with it.

   Her internetting usually starts with a question and ends three hours later.

   A morning of internetting turned up the article she needed.

   Similarbrowsing, surfing, searching

   Note

   The casual, everyday sense belongs in dialogue more than in technical writing. In a 1995 book created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik, a character promises to "do some hacking, internetting, see what I can find." It sits easily in a list of activities like that one. In formal prose, searching online or online research says the same thing more plainly.

2. 2
   noununcountablebefore a noun

   The act of connecting a computer, device, or similar to a computer network, in particular the Internet.

   The technician handled the internetting of every device in the building.

   Proper internetting of the sensors let them report data in real time.

   Similarnetworking, connection, wiring, linking

   Note

   Defense planning gave this sense its early life. In 1967 Robert McNamara tied a cut in radar numbers to the internetting of "our radar system" with that of the Federal Aviation Agency. The word usually takes an of-phrase naming what is connected, or between when it names the machines on either side. By 1999 it could stretch to whole communities, as in "the internetting of academe."

3. 3
   noununcountablebefore a noun

   The act of linking multiple separate computer networks into a single connected whole.

   The project's internetting joined the campus networks into one system.

   Reliable internetting depends on agreed standards between the separate networks.

   Similarinterconnection, networking, integration

   Note

   Here the things being joined are whole networks, not single machines, and that is what separates it from connecting one device. Frank Heinrich in 1978 called it "the creation of a network of networks," and in 1982 Robert Shatzer of Sytek discussed it at the Interface '82 conference, in a session on local-area network gateways. Internetworking is the fuller synonym.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of internet.

   He is internetting from a café downtown.

   The students were internetting on borrowed laptops.

   Note

   The verb behind this form works in two ways. In the casual sense of going online, it takes no object: she spent the evening internetting. In the sense of joining devices or things into a network, it can take an object, as in internetting the sensors, or stand alone. The same spelling also serves as a noun for time spent online and its technical cousins.

   The crew spent the week internetting the field sensors.

   They began internetting the branch offices' computers last spring.

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