Sunday, March 12, 2023

How Does the Internet Work




The internet delivers different types of information and media across networked devices. It operates using an Internet Protocol (IP) and a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) packet routing network. Whenever you visit a website, your computer or mobile device requests the server using such protocols.

The server accesses the web page and delivers the right information to your computer whenever the request arrives. This is broadly the end-to-end user experience. Let us now look at the more technical details of how the internet works.

1. Connecting computers

      The basic foundation of the internet is an interconnected network of computers. When two computers interact, they must be physically (often via an Ethernet connection) or wirelessly connected (via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth). All modern systems can support any of these connections to establish a core network.


       The Computer Network, as described above, is not restricted to two PCs. One can link several computers. However, as you expand, it may get more complex. Every machine on a network is connected to a tiny computing device known as a router to address this problem. This router’s only function is to operate as a signaler. It ensures that a message transmitted from a particular computer reaches its intended recipient. With the addition of a router, a system of 10 computers needs merely ten wires instead of 10 × 10 = 100 connections.


        Let us now discuss interconnecting hundreds of thousands to billions of machines. A single router cannot scale to that extent; nonetheless, a router is an independently programmable computer unit. This implies that two or more routers may be connected, enabling infinite scaling.

4. Utilizing ubiquitous public infrastructure via a modem

         By now, we have constructed a network identical to the internet, although it is only intended for individual use and cannot connect with the outside world. This is where public infrastructure comes in. The telephone system links an office to everyone worldwide, making it the ideal wiring configuration for the internet. A modem is necessary for connecting networks to the telephone system. This modem converts data from a network into data that can be managed by the telephony architecture and vice versa.


     The following step is to transmit the information from your network to the target network. To accomplish this, the network must establish a connection with an internet service provider (ISP). An ISP is a service that administers specified routers that are interconnected and also have access to the routers of other ISPs. Therefore, the data from the host network is delivered to the target network via the web of ISP networks.

6. Assigning domain name to IP addresses

       IP addresses are intended for computers, but in an infinitely extensible internet, it would be difficult for people to keep count of an ever-growing number of addresses. To simplify matters, one may designate an IP address with a domain name, a human-readable name. Google.com is an excellent example of this — the domain name is used in conjunction with the IP address 142.250.190.78. Therefore, typing the domain name is the simplest way to access a computer online.

7. Connected the internet to the web

      The internet is a network architecture that enables millions of machines to communicate with one another. Several of these machines (web servers) can feed web browsers intelligible messages. The web is an application constructed on top of the internet’s infrastructure. It is important to note that additional services, like email, have been developed on top of the internet.


     Intranets are personal and bespoke networks confined to an organization’s members. They offer participants a secure gateway to access shared information, collaborate, and communicate.

     Extranets are quite similar to intranets, except that they enable collaboration and sharing with other businesses. Typically, they are employed to safely and confidentially transmit information to customers and other enterprise stakeholders. Frequently, their functions resemble those of an intranet: file and information sharing, collaboration tools, message boards, etc. Intranets and extranets operate on the same infrastructure and adhere to the same protocols as the internet.


How does the web work?

When we discuss the internet in common parlance, we typically refer to the web – although the two terms are not interchangeable. If the internet can be understood as a network of highways, then the web will be the network of restaurants, toll booths, gas stations, etc., built along it.

On the other hand, the web comprises multiple computers connected to the internet called clients and servers.

      Clients are internet-connected devices of a web user (such as a computer linked to Wi-Fi or a mobile phone) and the online-accessing software installed on such systems (generally a web browser).

      Servers store websites, applications, and their associated data and activities. When a client device requests access to a website, a replica of the webpage is received from the server to the client’s computer. The webpage is then exhibited in the client’s web browser.

The browser then transmits an HTTP or HTTPS request message back to the server, asking the server to transmit a copy of the web page to the client. This message and all other data transferred between the client and server are sent via the TCP/IP protocol across your internet connection.






#webs #fiberoptics #network #protocols

#bandwidth #servers #bluetooth #topology


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