How does the Internet work?
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the internet is a big deal. It's also really complicated, so it can be hard to understand how it works. To help you get a better grasp on this wondrous technology and how it connects us all together—as well as some of its limitations—we're going to break down what's happening when you click "send" on your email program or browse the web in general.
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The internet is a network of billions of computers and other electronic devices.
The Internet is a network of billions of computers and other electronic devices that communicate with each other. It's the largest network in the world—a worldwide network connecting computers and computer networks.
The Internet connects millions of users around the globe. It consists of four key components:
goog_555937584- Servers (computers)
- Routers (devices that connect networks)
- Domain Name System (DNS) servers, which translate web addresses like "google.com" into IP addresses like 74.125.224.72
- Endpoints, including PCs, phones and apps
Some history
In the 1960s and 1970s, the internet was a network of computers at universities and research institutions. Each computer was connected to other computers over telephone lines or radio frequencies. The first version of the World Wide Web—the part of the internet that we use today—was invented by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland.
In 1994, American scientists made another big breakthrough: they created Mosaic, an easy-to-use browser; this allowed anyone to access information without needing technical expertise or advanced computer skills. The year before, Marc Andreessen had created Netscape Navigator; these two technologies eventually led to what we now call “web 1.0”: a time when accessing websites on your home computer was as simple as turning on your laptop or desktop PC and opening up your web browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox).
HTTP and HTML
HTTP and HTML are two of the most important languages of the Internet. HTTP is a request/response protocol, used to communicate between servers and clients (your web browser). HTML is a markup language that describes how text and images should be formatted on web pages.
When you type an address into your browser, you're making an HTTP request for information from that server. You'll see something like this:
Hello World
This means "Hey! I am requesting some HTML code." This can be anything from a simple greeting to an entire page of information about whatever you searched for or wanted to view in your browser window. In response, your browser will receive back some sort of document with text inside it along with any included images or videos (depending on what kind of file type was requested).
When you browse the web, you make a request to the server.
When you browse the web, you make a request to the server. The server then serves you the web page and sends it back to you.
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How does information get from my computer to my friend's?
The Internet is a network of computers connected by wires and wireless technology. In order to get information from your computer to another, it has to pass through several other computers on the way. The first thing that happens is that you type a web address into your browser, like "www.nytimes.com." When you press enter, your computer sends out a request asking the remote server for information about that website—the HTML files it contains and so on.
The server then sends back its response: all those HTML files stored onto its own hard drive. This response travels over the Internet until it reaches your computer; when it does arrive at your home or office, your computer processes those files into an image (for instance) of what's on nytimes.com's front page; this image gets displayed on-screen as if by magic!
Domain Name Servers
Domain name servers (DNS) are the Internet's equivalent of a phone book. They are responsible for translating domain names into IP addresses, and they direct your traffic to the correct destination. The DNS system is distributed over several different servers around the world, which means that if any one server is down or goes down, your internet connection will still be accessible.
The Domain Name System makes it possible to locate a specific computer on the Internet through its domain name rather than by its numeric IP address. This allows people to find websites quickly without having to memorize their IP addresses or remember their web host's names.
Proxy servers
goog_555937586- Proxy servers are computers that act as an intermediary between your computer and the internet.
- Proxy servers are used to filter traffic and provide anonymity. They act as a middleman for incoming requests from the internet, so that information about you can't be traced directly back to you.
- Proxy servers are also used to hide your IP address, or your identity on the Internet. This can be helpful if you want to prevent websites from tracking your location or seeing which sites you visit most often. Some companies offer paid services with this feature built-in; otherwise, there are many free proxy server services available online that anyone can use without registration or payment (see below).
- Using a proxy server can speed up web browsing by caching content locally so it doesn't have to download over and over again for every page request. This makes pages load faster since they don't have to go through several layers of intermediaries before reaching them from their original source hosts.*
Is the internet really anonymous?
The web is a powerful tool, but it also comes with some risks. Your internet usage can be tracked by your IP address, browser history and cookies (small pieces of information stored on your computer). This makes it easy for websites to build profiles about you—even if you're not using social media accounts or signing up for services.
If you want to remain anonymous online, there are steps you can take:
goog_555937588- Use the Tor browser for maximum anonymity when browsing the web.
- Don't log in to any accounts using your real name or email address. If a website asks for personal information like this before allowing access to its features then try another site that doesn't require such sensitive details upfront (such as Wikipedia).
- Always clear your web browser's cache after completing an activity online (such as reading an article). Doing so will keep others from tracking what pages were visited recently based on cookies left behind in your cache folder (which stores temporary files downloaded by browsers).
The internet is just a bunch of individual devices that are linked together by wires and wireless technology.
The internet is just a bunch of individual devices that are linked together by wires and wireless technology. To understand how the internet works, you need to know that the internet is a network of billions of computers and other electronic devices. It's a network of wires and wireless technology that stretches around the globe, connecting people on opposite sides of the earth with each other.
Conclusion
The internet is just a bunch of individual devices that are linked together by wires and wireless technology. This means that when you're browsing the web, you're actually connecting to servers located all around the world. These servers can be accessed through any device with an internet connection, including mobile phones and tablets.