Hello everyone welcome to another article. In this article, we are going to learn about how the internet works. I will share all the knowledge I have on how this internet thing works keep scrolling and learn about how the internet works.

Before we get to the topic of how the internet works first we have to learn about networks.

What is a network?

A network is a group of connected computers that are able to send data to each other. You can think of the computer network as your friend circle, in your friend circle, you all regularly exchange news or information on any topic that's how the computer network also works. All computers are connected to each other in order to send or receive any data.

What is the Internet?

The Internet is the backbone of the Web, the technical infrastructure that makes the Web possible. In simple words, you can say that the Internet is a large network of computers that communicate altogether. In fact, the word "Internet" could be said to come from this concept: interconnected networks.

Since computers are connected to each other within networks and these networks also all connect with each other, one computer can talk to another computer in a faraway network thanks to the Internet. This makes it possible to rapidly exchange information between computers across the world.

Does the internet have any control center?

The answer is no the internet has no control center. The Internet is a distributed networking system by distributing networking system I want to say that the internet is not dependent on any individual machine. Any computer or hardware that can send or receive data in the right protocols can be part of the internet.

How does the internet work?

Now we have seen the basics of what the internet and network are let's now jump into how does internet works.

There are some fundamental concepts that are important in knowing how the internet works:

• Packets
• Protocols
• IP Address
• Port Number
• DNS

Packets

Packets are the small segments that contain a large number of data. Every packet contains both data and information about the data. The information about the packet's contents is known as the "header," and it goes at the front of the packet so that the receiving machine knows what to do with the packet. When the data is sent over the internet it doesn't go in a single piece it goes in a small number of packets which are then translated into bits. When the packets arrive at their destination then they are reassembled in order and then they can use or display data. This happens on both sides i.e. client-side and server-side. You can think of packets as a puzzle game you go to the store and ask for a puzzle game and then when you come home you rearrange the puzzle in order to solve the game.

Protocols

Protocols are some common rules which every device or hardware uses in order to send or receive data. You can think of a protocol as two people who grew up in different countries should know a common language in order to communicate or understand each other. A protocol is a standardized way of doing certain actions and formatting data so that two or more devices are able to communicate and understand each other. Some common examples of protocols are

• IP (Internet Protocol) - is used for sending packets from network to network
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) - for ensuring that the packets arrived in the correct order in this protocol if any packet gets missed or corrupt you will get the error message and you will get 100% of the data.
• HTTP/HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol / Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) - This protocol is used for formatting data for websites and applications.
• UDP (User datagram protocol) - This protocol is used with TCP, this protocol is used in streaming, and video calls. In this protocol, 100% of data will not be shared and you will not get any error message too.

IP Address

The Internet is a global network of computers and each computer connected to the internet must have something unique through which it can get recognized. Then the internet address or IP address comes into the picture. An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet. IP address contains location information and makes devices accessible for communication. IP address plays a big role in understanding how the internet works. Structure of IP address nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn

Port Number

So now that we have understood what IP address is and what IP address does there is still room for port numbers. Let's now understand this with an example, let's say you ordered pizza online and you fill in your details, your address, and all now when the delivery boy will come and when he will see so many houses in the colony how will he find your house? That's where he will see the landmark and will search for that specific landmark and then he can deliver the pizza to you. So the landmark, in this case, is port number let's say you search something on Google now Google will have your IP address but how will Google decide where he has to send the data specifically you could have requested the data from your game or you could have searched it on the web. Now how will google decide? Exactly, port numbers will help google in this field port numbers are added with IP address so that any web server can know where they have to send the data. This is the structure of the IP address with port data nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:nn

DNS (Domain Name System)

Now let's say you know the IP address of Google, Facebook, or any website you use but remembering those numbers is quite hard to answer the solution to this question we got DNS which does work like a phone book. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so the browser can load resources and we get saved from remembering every IP address which we have to visit on the web.

Why this information was needed in order to know how the internet works?

Consider this article which you are reading on hashnode, this data has been sent to the internet in pieces with the help of thousands of packets. These packets traveled over wired cables, radio waves, and routers then it reaches you from our computer/server to your computer or any device. Then these packets which you received on your devices passed these packets on the browser and your browser interpreted the data within the packets in order to display the text you are reading now. (IP address, port number, and DNS also played a vital role in working of the internet)

So this was all on how the internet works I hope you have learned something from this article and if you have learned something from this article make sure to comment and like. And if you have any queries related to this article you can directly comment or email me I will make sure to reply to you as soon as possible.