We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.
- Stephen Hawking
How Internet Works?
When you chat to somebody on the Net or send them an e-mail, do you ever stop to think how many different computers you are using in the process? There's the computer on your own desk, of course, and another one at the other end where the other person is sitting, ready to communicate with you. But in between your two machines, making communication between them possible, there are probably about a dozen other computers bridging the gap. Collectively, all the world's linked-up computers are called the Internet. How do they talk to one another?
What is Internet?
The Internet is a collection of standalone computers (and computer networks in companies, schools, and colleges) all loosely linked together. The connections between the computers are a mixture of old-fashioned copper cables, fiber-optic cables (which send messages in pulses of light), wireless radio connections (which transmit information by radio waves), and satellite links.
What does the Internet do?
The Internet has one very simple job: to move computerized information (known as data) from one place to another. That's it! The machines that make up the Internet treat all the information they handle in exactly the same way. In this respect, the Internet works a bit like the postal service. Letters are simply passed from one place to another, no matter who they are from or what messages they contain. The job of the mail service is to move letters from place to place, not to worry about why people are writing letters in the first place; the same applies to the Internet.
What will we learn?
- Internet Addresses
- Protocol Stacks and Packets
- Networking Infrastructure
- Internet Infrastructure
- The Internet Routing Hierarchy
- Domain Names and Address Resolution
- Internet Protocols
- Wrap Up