How does it work? I know, you get free tech that two other civs discovered.

The question is do you keep getting free tech or is it one time use where you pick up free tech right after you built the Internet and that's it.

Can one rush the Internet then set to 100% culture and pumping out military and still on par with other civs?

As far as I know, the Internet effect continues for the rest of game.

I don't know if beelining to the Internet is a viable strategy. I imagine that you would skip over too many other important techs, leaving you with a weak military, setting your self up for attacks from other civs. While your idea of 100% military once you get the Internet would work, up until that point you'd be in trouble.
Not to mention skipping techs that improve other aspects, like your cities, diplomacy, economy, etc.

As an experiment, you could try it using the worldbuilder to see what happens.

You get all techs that are known to two other Civs. It's available far too late in the game and is mostly useless. You would be better diverting your resources on something else like a spaceship part.

Well, I played the Earth map and Asoka was leading the tech while I beelined for Fibre Optics, and hoped to use it to get all the techs that he had so I got ahead overall (he had stuff like Medicine and Ecology). When I completed it though all it gave me was weak-ass Fascism and something else.

You can use it for 1 or 2 extra techs, but if you're short on hammers then you're better off putting those to better use. It's great if you started on an island and were behind 1 or 2 techs anyway. then you can just start researching fusion and pick up on stuff like ecology, satilites, artillery, etc without the military penilty.

I'm not sure I agree with some of the above posts, although Cookie Crumbs has used the magic phrase "beelined".

I have found that (typically) in the pursuit of a cultural victory (Monarch btw) usually I will end up going for those last cultural wonders - especially if I've been unable to get a lot of religion before monasteries go obsolete. Running through the Electricity > Radio > Mass Media path takes me just about all the way to Computers at the same time. You need then pursue one branch of the tech' tree towards Fibre / Fiber Optics and build the (rather expensive) Internet to pick up the other branch, plus a few bonus technologies (albeit questionable in terms of value other than trade or gift potential) such as Divine Right and Fascism. While Space Ship is not the objective, The Internet reopens this door as an option, while it will give you a heap of military technologies ...

... for instance, if you go with Computers and Satellites as the beelined prerequisites to F. Optics, you can pick up; Railroad, Combustion, Steam Power, Assembly Line, Industrialism, Plastics, plus any missed technologies such as the abovementioned Fascism, and possibly other indirect tech's such as Biology and Medicine. As noted, it will continue to work through the rest of the game, so it will keep you pretty up to date with a competitive Space Race and provide other handy technologies such as Composites. There will be some pain with this path however; you'll not have factories for a while, and will probably miss The Pentagon. The other branch through to Plastics misses The Apollo Program, which makes a Space victory a little tougher, as this wonder is also pretty expensive; you need to wait for The Internet to be built before being able to start on The Apollo Program before then getting underway with Space Ship parts.

I must confess though, if you don't make a beeline to get it but take a more conventional and 'even' range of technology pursuits, that you probably won't get too much from it.

Equally if you have a massive technology lead, or there's only one other tribe that's competitive with your technology lead, then again it's not likely to yield great results.

I guess heading back to my original point, there are a few different ways of picking up a Cultural victory, and while some would advocate hitting the 100% culture setting as early as practicable, if you go to the other extreme and feel uncomfortable about finishing your technology pursuit with Mass Media, this chase for The Internet will allow you to stay competitive in terms of modern military units, and if the unthinkable happens and you lose one of your designated culture cities, you should at least have access to modern units and may still have a fighting chance at a Space race win.

I find that a wonder like the Internet comes too late in the game to be of any significant value. Beelining leaves your society bereft of many of the advantages from the other techs for quite a long time, and on the higher levels this would probably be a highly costly strategy. Furthermore it doesn't really help against a single civ thats obtained a massive tech lead, since it'll still remain isolated at the top (another civ has to discover the techs the tech leader has before you're given them).

Ceritoglu,

Like all things Civ IV, its value is going to be determined by your position and objectives.

I guess there are trade-offs whichever way you go, but I wanted to express that by bee-lining 'in some instances', you can pick up over half a dozen or more late-game technologies - some of which will be of value to you, while others can at least be of use for gifting to keep others off your back or strengthening positive ties. Certainly Computers is well worth bee-lining for anyway provided you have an interest in pursuing the late-game tech's, and is only one tech' away beyond Radio for those chasing the late-game Culture boosters. I have found that you can survive with SAM Infantry and Artillery while charging towards Satellites as the prerequisite to F. Optics, although living without Factories for a while can be tough.

I'm not sure what constitutes "higher levels", but this approach has worked for me twice on Monarch, leading me once to Space and once to Cultural wins.

I'm not saying it's a 'rock solid' strategy that should always be tried, but I'm not really in favour of "The Internet's useless, it never gives you anything"-type philosophy either ... it can work well for you, sometimes.

For The Internet wonder to be useful, there must be at least two other civs with tech developments that (a) you do not have but (b) could make good use of. So for (a) they must have been following a tech path which differs from yours, while for (b) their paths should be similar to yours. These are mutually contradictory. Also, by the time you have developed Fibre Optics you are almost at the top of the tech tree and presumably trying to win the space race - you should have won earlier using any other victory condition, I think - and the AI civs, who are pretty good at the space race, will either be hard on your heels (in which case you should build SS parts, not Wonders) or so far behind that such techs as they may have will not bring you noticeable benefits. If by mischance you have let the AIs get ahead of you, then the Net could possibly let you catch up a bit, but you will already be in deep trouble; indeed, an AI civ might do the dirty on you and finish the Net before you can, though I've not known this to happen.
In short, The Internet comes too late, and doesn't help you to win.
By the way, I find it amusing that to build The Net you need Fibre Optics, but can build it faster if you have access to Copper.

That's cause you need the fiber optics hype to get the idea of the internet... but then you realize it'd be a lot easier with simple copper.

The last time I got the internet, I ended up receiving about 5-6 new techs the very next turn. So, there does not appear to be a limit to how many new techs you can receive. If another civ has it and you don't, you get it.

The last time I got the internet, I ended up receiving about 5-6 new techs the very next turn. So, there does not appear to be a limit to how many new techs you can receive. If another civ has it and you don't, you get it.

That should read "If TWO (or more) other civs have it and you don't, you get it." Otherwise correct, that is, on every turn for the rest of the game, there is a check to see if there are any techs that two other civs have but you don't... if so, you get 'em.

I have found that (typically) in the pursuit of a cultural victory (Monarch btw) usually I will end up going for those last cultural wonders - especially if I've been unable to get a lot of religion before monasteries go obsolete. Running through the Electricity > Radio > Mass Media path takes me just about all the way to Computers at the same time. You need then pursue one branch of the tech' tree towards Fibre / Fiber Optics and build the (rather expensive) Internet to pick up the other branch, plus a few bonus technologies (albeit questionable in terms of value other than trade or gift potential) such as Divine Right and Fascism.

If you really pursue cultural victory, those late cultural wonders shouldn't bother you that much because the end of the game should be around the corner. The moment I ususally turn the culture screw towards 100% is right after Biology, when I can assign 10-12 artist specialist in each of 3 designated cities (these 3 should net you 700-900 culture per turn). I might wait till Assembly Line to get infantry if there is some pissed off neighbour civ with large army. Basically, question I ask myself is will I be able to hold off any attacks in next 70-80 turns while my 3 main cities are pushing culture while others produce units or wealth. If answer is positive, I push culture slider to the max.

Sure, that's certainly one approach, and I'm the last person to suggest that it's wrong. I've got mid-20th Century 'Culturals' myself with my most advanced units being Grenadiers and Cav's.

I guess I'm presenting the proposition that if you feel you need Broadway et al. to get you over the line (and often I do), and are nervous about losing to the AI through anything from; a Space Race loss, to ruination of your Cultural objective through a surprise attack that wipes out a key city, that pursuit of The Internet can hand you all the technology you'll need to protect your position ... or if a sudden change of strategy is thrust upon you, swing you back into contention in the Space Race.

Please understand that I'm not advocating The Internet as a 'must have' wonder or anything like that, but I have found that it can be useful under certain circumstances, and for me, those have been in builder-type games when I've gone after Cultural wins, had a respectable land mass and flask haul, felt I needed the late Cultural wonders to secure victory, but worried about the AI.

No probs, I understand what you're saying ;) . I'm a builder type myself, I rarely decide which type of victory to pursue before 1000 AD because I want to build well rounded empire in the first place. On few occasions I tried cultural pursuit from the start and had some 17th century monarch wins, but I was on top of my toes all the time because that beelined approach weakened non-cultural aspects of the game, such as science and military.