As of 2015, about 3.2 billion people use the Internet. If you're trying to connect, say, ten computers, you need 45 cables, with nine plugs per computer! A network is a group of connected computers that are able to send data to each other. The next router uses the information on the packet to figure out where it’s going and transmits the data to the next router along its the path. The telephone infrastructure already connects your house with anyone in the world so it is the perfect wire we need. For example, in the screenshot below, we traced the route to howtogeek.com from a Comcast internet connection in Eugene, Oregon. You probably use your internet service provider’s DNS service, but you can choose to use another DNS server like Google Public DNS or OpenDNS. All modern computers can sustain any of those connections. As we saw, the Internet is a technical infrastructure which allows billions of computers to be connected all together. It is a global collection of networks, both big and small. It’s a global sprawl of devices, connections, and cables that constantly request, transmit, and receive data. This enables devices to be connected together locally without the … That’s all the internet really is—a large number of computer networks all over the world, connected together. An ISP is a company that manages some special routers that are all linked together and can also access other ISPs' routers. It's an address made of a series of four numbers separated by dots, for example: 192.168.2.10. So far so good. Instead, it passes a packet to your home router with information about where it’s going and where the web server should reply. Companies and individuals who want domain names have to pay to register them. Creating this interconnected network (or internet) isn’t just as simple as plugging each network into a nearby one, one by one. Table of Contents §1–Introduction §2–A brief history about the Internet §3–Transferring Information §4–The Basic Languages and Protocols of the Web Content is available under these licenses. The packets traveled to our router, through Comcast’s network north to Seattle, before being routed onto a Tata Communications (as6453.net) backbone network through Chicago, New York, and Newark before making their way to a Linode data center in Newark, New Jersey where the website is hosted. Satellite internet works similarly to cable internet, except there are a few more moving parts (literally!). ARTICLE 19 is an international non-profit organization that seeks to promote, develop, and protect freedom of expression, including access to information. Of course a single router can't scale that far, but, if you read carefully, we said that a router is a computer like any other, so what keeps us from connecting two routers together? For a live broadcast, the encoder and streamer work together in real-time. Here's how.. The Internet could, theoretically, work by circuit switching—and some parts of it still do. Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read more than 1 billion times. So we are connected to the telephone infrastructure. You don’t need to know how the Internet works to use it, of course, but that doesn’t mean anyone can’t benefit from a quick overview. Everyone’s talking about the internet and whether, or how, it should be regulated. The next step is to send the messages from our network to the network we want to reach. RELATED: What Is DNS, and Should I Use Another DNS Server? All Rights Reserved. Your data request passes from your computer to a satellite internet dish attached to your home (or a nearby location). With all these networks connected together, there isn’t just a single path data takes. Think of it like a large, public address book for phone numbers. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. But not enough people know how the internet actually works—or what exactly the internet is. But it gets complicated quickly. If you want to send a message to a computer, you have to specify which one. The internet signal then comes to you and is captured by your satellite dish. The Internet is an infrastructure, whereas the Web is a service built on top of the infrastructure. That’s all the internet really is—a large number of computer networks all over the world, connected together. It's a continuous connection, and data is always received in the order in which it's sent. Image Credit: Toria/Shutterstock.com, Chaiwat Srijankul/Shutterstock.com. Among those computers, some computers (called Web servers) can send messages intelligible to web browsers. Internet doesn't work on satellite but 99% of the internet in the world works on the Optical Fiber Cables installed inside the oceans and seas. RELATED: Who Provides Internet Service for My Internet Service Provider? The Internet is a series of interconnected wires and hardware components that enables us to create and access information, or data, on the World Wide Web. In the year 2000, only 52% of US adults used the internet [1] In 2018, that number jumped to 89%; In 2013, US adults who didn’t use broadband internet at home but owned smartphones was just 8% Unlike with physical mail, sending data packets is still very fast, though, and it happens many times a second. The Internet, like the Postal Service, holds a lot of information and transmits it from one place to another. Even when you’re just connecting to a single website, there’s a lot more going on under the hood. You will learn the basics of the technical infrastructure of the Web and the difference between Internet and the Web. Explains the basics of networking (TCP/IP) / the Internet in a clear and easy-to-grasp way. Does that mean the Internet and the Web are the same thing? The Internet consists of this whole infrastructure of networks. Let’s call this STEP ONE. Different computer networks are linked through a common Internet protocol that lets them all speak the same language. Check out our infographic depicting how the internet works and how it came to be The internet plays a significant role in our daily lives. Of course, there’s a lot of physical hardware—from the cables under your city streets to the massive cables on the ocean floors to satellites in orbit around the planet—that makes this communication possible. A router contacts another router and communicates the data in the packet. Wi-Fi is a form of telecommunications that transmits data wirelessly using radio waves. The Internet works the same way. By connecting computers to routers, then routers to routers, we are able to scale infinitely. There are lots of little topics that are important to the internet we all use, and which you can read about in more detail. I think it is an important part of everyone's understanding of basic computing. With a circuit-switching system, a dedicated line allows for transmission of data from one point to another. Interestingly, the “Internet” isn’t a single object. TCP is all about reliability, and devices chat back and forth and track packets of data to ensure nothing gets lost along the way. We could write a whole book here, but for now, if you want to read more, the above links should get you started. Note: For the rest of this article, we will only talk about physical cables, but wireless networks work the same. The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek. A packet’s travel time is measured in milliseconds. There are other networks out there: your friends, your neighbors, anyone can have their own network of computers. The internet often uses various protocols such as TCP/IP to make this communication possible. For most of us, the internet is virtual, made of Instagram posts, emails and YouTube videos. Now you did not send an email or message someone with this internet connection. provider (for example, Gmail) through your laptop’s Network Interface Card to your Wireless Access Point (WAP) using your local WiFi The most common transport protocol is TCP/IP, which stands for Transmission Control Protocol over internet Protocol. Headquartered in London, with offices in Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, Senegal, Tunisia, Myanmar, and the USA, ARTICLE 19 works to bridge the knowledge gap about Internet infrastructure and why it matters for people. How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. The word “internet” refers to a worldwide system of “interconnected computer networks”. RELATED: What's the Difference Between TCP and UDP? Thus any computer linked to a network has a unique address that identifies it, called an "IP address" (where IP stands for Internet Protocol). People use human-readable domain names like howtogeek.com and google.com, which are more memorable and understandable than a series of numbers. Primary computing resources for children learning about the internet. It is worth noting there are several other services built on top of the Internet, such as email and IRC. Internet, a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. This is what makes it possible for anyone to create content, offer services, and sell products without requiring permission from a central authority. The Internet is the backbone of the Web, the technical infrastructure that makes the Web possible. This network of networks is a little more interesting and complex than it might seem. It is perhaps the greatest tool we have ever built, for better or worse. You can connect as many computers as you wish. Any packets sent back to your system from the remote server make the reverse journey. So using the domain name is the easiest way for us to reach a computer over the Internet. For simplicity's sake we will say that all computers on the internet can be divided into two categories: server s and browser s. Servers are where most of the information on the internet "lives". It will take a bit longer for packets to go longer distances with more transfers, or “hops”, as they’re called. Internet works via satellite signals also but, if we compare effective transmission cost per data packet, submarine cables are way cheaper than Satellite Internet communication. The various technologies that support the Internet have evolved over time, but the way it works hasn't changed that much: Internet is a way to connect computers all together and ensure that, whatever happens, they find a way to stay connected. 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But it's not really possible to set cables up between your house and the rest of the world, so how can you handle this? It is beyond the capacity of our current technology to send so much data via Satellite and it is much cheaper to channel that traffic via a wave guide (Cables) than to beam it into space and receive back. Check out my new book, How to Prepare for Everything: www.howtoprepare.com!The internet is not a fuzzy cloud. Your local postal employee can’t just grab the letter and take it directly across the country or continent to its destination address. This is the room where ARPANET first connected on October 29, 1969. The Internet is a vast, sprawling collection of networks that connect to each other. To do that, we will connect our network to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). To solve this problem, each computer on a network is connected to a special tiny computer called a router. There’s no question that internet has revolutionised humanity. © 2005-2021 Mozilla and individual contributors. This router has only one job: like a signaler at a railway station, it makes sure that a message sent from a given computer arrives at the right destination computer. However, when you use domain names like these, your computer contacts its domain name system (DNS) server and asks for the numerical IP address for that domain. The Internet works because open standards allow every network to connect to every other network. Such a network comes very close to what we call the Internet, but we're missing something. This article discusses what the Internet is and how it works. Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, comics, trivia, reviews, and more. The encoder converts audio content into a streaming format, the server makes it available over the Internet and the player retrieves the content. But what about connecting hundreds, thousands, billions of computers? How does the Internet work? How the Internet Works The internet is a world-wide network of computers linked together by telephone wires, satellite links and other means. Internet Circuit vs. WiFi. Other applications might use different protocols or create their own protocols that nevertheless operate on top of protocols like TCP and IP. We speak of packets “traveling”, but of course, they’re just pieces of data. Each packet is very small, and large numbers of packets are sent back and forth when computers communicate—even if one is just loading a website from another one. Sadly, it doesn't go much into other aspects of networking, just how the Internet works. (If you use a landline phone, you still rely on this technology, by the way.) He's written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Sometimes referred to as a “network of networks,” the Internet emerged in the United States in the 1970s but did not become visible to the general public until the early 1990s. This exchange of data is possible only because all the computers on the network play by the same set of rules, called the Internet Protocol (IP). When two computers need to communicate, you have to link them, either physically (usually with an Ethernet cable) or wirelessly (for example with WiFi or Bluetooth systems). Simply put, the internet is a global collection of networks of computers connected to each other. So much of the technology we use involves layers of technology built on other layers, and the same is true for the internet. Nothing, so let's do that. You probably have your own “local area network” at home, and it’s made up of all the devices connected to your router, which connects to the internet. How the Internet works is fascinating, and remarkable. The internet is composed of computer networks that allow users to access information from other computers (provided that they have permission to do so). two computers need to communicate, you have to link them, either physically (usually with an Ethernet cable) or wirelessly (for example with WiFi or Bluetooth systems). The Internet Service Provider administers an Internet access point, for example a cellular radio tower, which may need to be accessible over long distances. For example, every device on a network has a unique, numerical IP address on that network. There’s also a lot of software at work in the background, allowing you to type in a website address like “google.com” and have your computer to send information to the physical location where that website is located in the fastest way possible. By: Jeff Tyson One of the greatest things about the Internet is that nobody really owns it. There are also other protocols, like UDP, which throws out the reliability stuff for raw speed. The packet is just a signal on the wire. This modem turns the information from our network into information manageable by the telephone infrastructure and vice versa. It takes longer for a letter to get to the other side of the world than the other side of the country because it has to make more stops, and that’s generally true for the internet as well. Instead, the letter goes to your local post office, where it’s sent to another post office, and then another one, and so on, until it gets to its destination. There are very occasional typos or slips. How Internet Infrastructure Works NEXT PAGE. In other words, even if a network between you and a website goes down, there’s usually another path the data can take. Last modified: Jan 11, 2021, by MDN contributors. Your computer can’t directly send a piece of information, or “packet” of data, to the computer hosting the website. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times---and that's just here at How-To Geek. Because networks are connected to multiple other networks, there’s a whole web of connections stretching out around the globe. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. How the Internet Works. The book is not too "American". IP stands for “internet Protocol”, so an IP address is an “internet Protocol address”. The routers along the path use something called the Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, to communicate information about whether a network is down and the optimal path for data to take. Underlying all this, there are different layers of “protocols” that devices use to communicate, even when using internet protocol. The history of the Internet is somewhat obscure, Understanding the difference between a web page, a web site, a web server and a search engine, Assessment: Structuring a page of content, From object to iframe — other embedding technologies, HTML Table advanced features and accessibility, Assessment: Typesetting a community school homepage, What went wrong? Data is sent to these addresses. You can actually see the path your packets take to a destination address by using the traceroute command, which tells routers along the path the packet travels to report back. Well, there are already cables linked to your house, for example, electric power and telephone. That’s nearly half the planet’s population. For example (at the time of writing; IP addresses can change) google.com is the domain name used on top of the IP address 173.194.121.32. Above transport protocols like TCP and UDP are application protocols, like HTTP or HTTPS—the hypertext transfer protocol, which your web browser users. It levels the playing field for everyone and it’s the reason why we have a rich diversity […] As you might notice, when we browse the Web with a Web browser, we usually use the domain name to reach a website. another router at another internet service provider, How to Turn off Google Assistant Repeat Command Suggestions, How to Share Song Lyrics From Apple Music on iPhone or iPad, How to Set a Default Music App on iPhone and iPad, How to Turn on the Develop Menu in Safari on Mac, How to Read a REG File and Check If It’s Safe, © 2021 LifeSavvy Media. There are both older IPv4 addresses and newer IPv6 addresses. These networks connect together in many different ways to form the single entity that we know as the Internet. You probably have your own “local area network” at home, and it’s made up of all the devices connected to your router, which connects to the internet. An internet circuit is an internet connection like fiber, cable, DSL line, or even satellite, provided by an internet service provider (ISP) such as AT&T, Spectrum or Comcast. To connect our network to the telephone infrastructure, we need a special piece of equipment called a modem. The word “internet” refers to a worldwide system of “interconnected computer networks”. The HTTP protocol works on top of the TCP protocol, which works on top of the IP protocol. We built that network for our own purposes. Developed in the mid-'60s, packet-switching technology brought communication into the digital age. It's not that simple. If you have a traditional "dialup" connection to the Net (where your computer dials a telephone number to reach your Internet service provider in what's effectively an ordinary phone call), you're using circuit switching to go online. This means that if any data is exchanged, the Internet will complete it. Your router then sends it to the routers at your internet service provider (Comcast, Time Warner, or whoever else you use), where it’s sent to another router at another internet service provider, and so on, until it reaches its destination. The history of the Internet is somewhat obscure. This means that those packets (small pieces of data sent between devices) can take multiple paths to get where they’re going. Such a network is not limited to two computers. The internet circuit determines the maximum capacity that the devices using a network (office computers, VoIP phones and guests) can obtain. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Once you understand the basics, you can better appreciate why this IT Crowd scene is so funny, too. Find out how the internet works and how we use it to send and receive data. Here’s how it works: your provider sends a fiber internet signal to a satellite in space. A computer network is much like a social circle, which is a group of people who all know each other, regularly exchange information, and coordinate activities together. Here is a brief summary: You head to MakeUseOf to catch up on the latest technology news. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. If it does, it’s noticed and resent. Satellite internet is a type of connection that uses a satellite to get an internet signal from your internet service provider (ISP) to you. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for Mobile Networks. To start, your browser sends a … To send a message to computer B, computer A must send the message to the router, which in turn forwards the message to computer B and makes sure the message is not delivered to computer C. Once we add a router to the system, our network of 10 computers only requires 10 cables: a single plug for each computer and a router with 10 plugs. The video you are watching now traveled thousands of miles from a Google data center to reach you. When we talk about the Internet, what we’re actually referring to is an inter connected net work of computers (hence, internet). Robyn Beck Getty Images. the first “Internet” was built in the late 1980s by academics in a project called NSFNet. The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. That’s a high level overview of how the internet works, at least. In comp… At its most basic, the Internet is a large network of computers which communicate all together. It began in the 1960s as a US-army-funded research project, then evolved into a public infrastructure in the 1980s with the support of many public universities and private companies. Since then, the research and development into improving network technologies has continued as networks have become far larger and faster and globally distributed with billions of computers. So the message from our network is carried through the network of ISP networks to the destination network. To make things easier, we can alias an IP address with a human readable name called a domain name. Networks are connected in many different ways along many different paths, and the software running on these routers (so named because they route traffic along the network) is always working to find the optimal paths for data to take. To use an imperfect analogy, it’s a bit like sending a letter in the mail. The model described is the 4-layer TCP/IP model, not the OSI model by the way. At the time, traditional communication networks -- like the nation's telephone system -- relied on analog, circuit-switching technology. How The Internet Works | Final Thoughts. 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