SHAHKOOH, Iran -- At first glance, this could be any sleepy Iranian hamlet. Women weave carpets on traditional looms. Tea brews over open fires.

Donkeys outnumber cars.

But listen closely: That clacking is fingers on keyboards and that crackling is 'modems' connecting to the Internet.

Welcome to the mountain village that lacks an elementary school, possesses just one central outhouse -- but has gone global.

No other Iranian village has progressed as far as Shahkooh, 240 miles northeast of Tehran, in tapping the Internet's potential to widen its horizons.

Villagers credit a native son. Ali-Akbar Jalali, who left to study in the provincial capital and went on to earn an electrical engineering degree in the United States, raised the idea during a 1999 visit.

The first computer was purchased with money raised by villagers.

A government grant paid for a second and several more came courtesy of a charity formed by Iranians in London.

Villagers who know something about computers volunteer as teachers in the computer center set up in Shahkooh's mosque.

Classes are free. The village even has its own Persian-language website, shahkooh.com. The goal is to teach computer skills to anyone interested among its 6,000 residents -- from chador-clad girls to sunburned farmers.

The hardware alone makes Shahkooh unique among villages.

Even in cities, a minority of Iranians are wired.

Only 2 million out of Iran's 70 million people -- about 3 percent -- have Internet access.

Since shahkooh.com was launched, more than two dozen villagers have become entrepreneurs, moving to the provincial capital of Gorgan to sell computer spare parts and offer computer services.

The dot.com businessmen also perform Internet searches and sell the information they glean. And shahkooh.com promotes local handicrafts such as carpets.

In summer, Shahkooh residents cultivate their farmland and tend their sheep and goats in pastures around the village.

In the fall, residents pack up their belongings -- including about a dozen computers -- ahead of the intolerably cold and snowy winter. They spend the winter 32 miles away in Qarnabad. Their year-round web server is in Gorgan.

Each year, at least 400 villagers learn computer basics in Shahkooh or Qarnabad.

Besides giving Shahkooh's people e-mail and web access, the Internet also offers familiarity with English, which is almost unknown in Iran outside the country's main cities. Villagers mostly like study- or job-related websites as well as those offering health and sports content.