How does the Internet Work?

"The Internet is not just a technology, it's a lifeline for our interconnected world, empowering individuals, businesses, and societies with unprecedented access to knowledge, communication, and opportunity." - Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web

That was an Awesome Quote! wasn't it?

Hey folks! 🙋🏻‍♂️

First of all, I congratulate you 🙌🏻 that you have chosen the most concise blog post to know about the Internet and its Working, and may you gain amazing and upskilling knowledge from this!

Let's Go! 🚀🌌

Before we talk about the Internet and how it works, let's understand what networks are. Imagine you (👦🏻) and your friend (👦🏻) have your computers connected with a cable.

That creates a network between the two computers, allowing you to share data but here the sharing of data is limited to you and your friend only.

Now, What exactly is the Internet? ⚡

It stands for "Interconnected Networks." It's an Interconnection of different networks enabling the sharing of data between any devices, which means you can share data between a computer (🖥️) in India and a computer (🖥️) in America.

That's the basic idea of the Internet. 🙌🏻

Hope it's Clear! 😀

But, How does the Internet work❓

Let's Take a Deep Dive! 🌊

Your data is stored in a place called a Data Center, and your device is connected to that data center through Submarine Cables. 🚀

(Want to know more about Submarine Cables? Refer to this.)

The blog you're reading, for example, is stored in a Data Center on a solid-state device (or SSD) in a Server, similar to the internal memory of your smartphone, Computer, etc. 🛳️

That's the main idea of it! 😄

But how does the data actually reach you through these submarine cables? 🤔

This is where IP addresses come in. IP addresses are like unique home (🏡) addresses.

Just like when you order something online 📦 and it's delivered to your home address, Similarly, data is delivered to you using your IP address as the reference for the destination. for example, your Computer 🖥️ .

The server that holds the data also has an IP address, and data is accessed using that address. The Internet service provider (ISP) is responsible for providing IP addresses. 🌟

Is it Clear? 🤔

If Yes!, then let's Move on! 😀

So many IPs, How to remember them❓

However, remembering IP addresses is inefficient and not-possible because there are so many of them, and they can change.

To solve this, we have Domain names that directly correspond to IP addresses. 📕

It's like a phonebook ☎️, where phone numbers are mapped to the names of the owners.

When you enter a domain name in your browser, such as user.com, your browser sends a request to a DNS server to get the corresponding IP address. 📦

Once the IP address is retrieved, the browser sends the request to the data center's server containing the data at that IP address. 🫡

The requested data then travels from the data center to you through submarine cables and reaches your device via a router or in the case of cellular data through a cell tower 🗼.

Why is data transfer over the Internet so much efficient❓

It's because the data is broken down into smaller parts called Data Packets📦.

These packets make the flow of data more efficient. Each data packet contains the IP address, sequence number of the server, and client (user). 🌊

This information helps the data packets reach your device in the correct order. 💫

If a data packet is lost along the way, an acknowledgment is sent to the server or data center to resend the lost packet. 📨

The sequence numbers on the data packets help with reassembling the data in the right order once most of the packets reach the destination. 📶

Congratulations!🌟

You just gained foundational Knowledge about the Internet and It's Working!

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Thanks!