Here is a picture of the Internet in North America. The heavy white lines are what is known as the "Backbone" of the Internet. Each yellow or pink line is a connection to a "Provider" such as OARnet. OARnet is our Internet provider (along with a great many other schools and businesses in Ohio). Soon, MCI will also be providing Internet services to us. Each little green dot is connected to hundreds (even thousands) of other networks such as the network we have at Ohio University.
The World Wide Web is an easy to use, transparent us er interface to these computers. You don't need to know where the computers are or how many exist, in order to use the World Wide Web. That is it's allure. The World Wide Web is to the Internet as Microsoft Windows (or a Macintosh) is to DOS.