How the internet works

Onimisi Adeolu — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 20:18:11 +0000

How Does the Internet Work?

Okay, so let me try to explain this the way I understand it. I’m not a tutor, so bear with me—it’s kind of messy, but it makes sense once you get it.

Basically, the internet is like a giant connection of servers. And a server? Think of it as a really big database that’s accessible to everybody. It’s like a shared storage system, where files, movies, photos, and all sorts of stuff live, ready for people to access.

Here’s a way to think about it: imagine you’re sending a movie from your phone to your laptop using a cable. That’s basically transferring data. Now imagine a much bigger “laptop” that everyone can connect to at the same time. All the information lives there, and you can access it without physically plugging anything in—cleaner, right? That’s essentially how the internet works.

Now, how do we connect to this giant storage? That’s where Wi-Fi and internet connections come in. Your device talks to your ISP (Internet Service Provider), which then connects you to the servers storing the stuff you want. The information travels through cables, satellites, and other networks until it reaches your device. And boom—you can watch your movie, check social media, or read this blog.

Here’s where it gets a bit more interesting:

IP Address: Every device and server on the internet has an IP address. It’s like your home address, but for your device. It tells the internet where to send data.
DNS (Domain Name System): Remember those long, confusing IP addresses? DNS is like a phone book. You type a name like google.com, and DNS translates it into the IP address of Google’s server so your device can connect.
HTTP / HTTPS: These are the “rules” that browsers follow to ask servers for data. HTTP is just the basic version, while HTTPS adds encryption so your information is safe from hackers. That little lock icon in your browser? That’s HTTPS doing its job.
Browsers: This is the tool you use to access the internet—Chrome, Safari, Firefox, whatever. The browser talks to servers using HTTP/HTTPS, gets the data, and shows it to you in a way you can understand.

Now here’s where it gets really cool:

Packets: Imagine you want to send a giant tub of ice cream to your friend in another city, but you can’t ship it as one thing. So you scoop it into tiny cups, label them, and send them separately. Each cup might take a different route, but when they all arrive, your friend can put them back together and enjoy the ice cream. That’s basically what packets are—tiny pieces of data sent across the internet that get reassembled at the destination.
Routing: Think of a network of delivery trucks and intersections. Each packet (tiny ice cream cup) chooses the best route based on traffic, speed, and road availability. Routers are like traffic controllers, making sure nothing gets lost.

I probably should have just used a pizza delivery analogy—that would have been better 😂. But I’m glad you get it.

So basically, whenever you watch a video or open a website, your device sends a bunch of packets through different routes, the routers guide them, and the server on the other end sends back packets until everything is complete. It’s kind of messy, but it’s also ridiculously fast.

People rarely ask “why does the internet work?” because, honestly, it’s super stable. It just works. But understanding even a little of what’s happening behind the scenes makes you appreciate it more. It’s basically millions of devices talking to each other, sharing information, and making life way easier.

So yeah, that’s my take on it. The internet isn’t magic—it’s just a huge, connected network of servers, packets, and routers that we all share. And the way it moves information around is surprisingly similar to sending a movie from your phone to your laptop… just way faster, cooler, and way more complicated than you ever notice. Now you also know a bit about IPs, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, browsers, packets, and routing—the real behind-the-scenes crew making it all happen.

my tech restart

Onimisi Adeolu — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 19:11:13 +0000

Hi guys ,so i started this year really confident and full of hope, i planned that the year was going to be my year of productivity and i was going to get the job done, looking back i did use this to make myself feel better , get the job done, the ai trend really did a number on me lol, i didnt take it quite well, i started this year as a decent developer, but i had a problem , i did'nt want to be mediocre ive always been liike that , the problem of wanting to learn everything and ending up learning nothing, wanting to become everything and becoming nothing , that was basically what i have been doing , i wanted to learn everything , be able to build everything , understand everything, be able to answer every question, well i did get really good at ai prompting for what its worth ? i started out with vibe coding then literilly using ai for everything , people would ask me questions and i would paste it on ai to reply and feel like a mentor ,i mean i have 5 experience in programming i cant start all over i would just get really better with ai till i become invincible , well that , that was a bad idea, but i guess its better late than never , restarting my tech journey as of today , starting from scratch , html,how does the internet work, the real basics , learning to use ai as a copilot and not the implementor, learning to think for myself , might have taken me 5 years and 11 months to learn this lesson but i guess its never too late to restart ? it isnt right ? i know i am aing the right decision but i just cant get that disappointed feeling off my chest from wasting soo much time ,of wanting to become everything ,i guess the point of this is to - well who am i kidding this is more of a self-reflection and a breath of fresh air to write out what i am felling less than an advice or to make someone learn from me.we have two months left so hopefully i make something with the rest of it , i am going to be posting my daily progress on here and what i'm learning , hopefully i dont quit and i actuallly achieve alot with the rest to recover for the wasted time

DEV Community: Onimisi Adeolu

How the internet works

my tech restart