Not a day goes by without us using the internet. In fact, if you’re reading this article, it’s all thanks to the internet. But, have you ever wondered how does INTERNET actually works?
Let us take a dive into the working of the internet.
Even if you do not have any prior technical knowledge, you will still be able to understand the article as it is written is the most basic and simple way possible.
So, let us start with the very basics of the Internet.
*In the most basic and simple terms, Internet is a large group of computers all connected with a purpose to communicate with each other.
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Before we dive deep into the technical stuff of Internet’s working, let us understand a few basic terminologies.
- Network: When two computers or devices are connected physically (using a wire) or wirelessly (using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), it becomes a network. You connect these devices with the sole purpose to share information or data (information/data could be as basic as sending a text or a file).
- Internet: A collection of networks connected to each other to share information or data is known as Internet. Hence, it is known as Interconnected Network.
Internet Service Provider: It is a company that facilitates your connection to the internet. Examples in India include Airtel, Reliance Jio, Hathway etc.
Server: It is a device just like any other computers which contains the information, data and other resources which are shared when requested by someone over the internet. In very basic terms, we can say that google.com also has its code on some computer and it shares that data every time someone tries to access that page.
IP(Internet Protocol) Address: It is a digital address of a device on the internet. It is similar to your house address. It is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network. For example, 192.178.218.100 is the IP address of google.com.
Domain name: Every device on the internet has a digital address but it is a numerical value which is difficult to remember. Imagine having to remember these numerical values for every single website you want to access. Sounds impossible, right? It is IMPOSSIBLE. This is where a domain name comes into picture. You just need to know a unique, human-readable address to access the website. For example, google.com instead of 192.178.218.100.
- DNS Resolver: When we enter the domain names, the server cannot directly understand it because machines only understand numbers. DNS resolver bridges the gap between a domain name and an IP Address. It converts the domain name into an IP address.
We now know few terminologies related to the internet, but we still do not know how are we accessing the internet. How are we able to connect to a device thousands of kilometers away from us.
We can do it by sending signal from your device to the satellite and then the satellite will send the signal to your friend’s device thousands of kilometers away. But is it PRACTICAL?
Communication satellites are approximately 36,000 kilometers above us. If you think about, the signal from your device will have to travel 36,000 + 36,000 kilometers to reach it’s destination. Now this process will take time and will delay the communication.
So humans came up with something called as optical fiber cables. Optical Fiber Cables uses light to transfer data from one place to another and it travels at a speed of 200,000 kilometers per SECOND!!
These optical fibers are physical cables that start from servers, travels oceans and continents to reach the location of your ISP and then to your nearest cell tower (if you’re using mobile data) or your router (if you’re using Wi-Fi). Then from these locations a radio wave signal is sent to your device.
Now, let us see what happens when we type www.google.com. And how and why does it display the Google’s search engine.
- Type the domain name in your browser: google.com
- The domain name is sent to a DNS Resolver which will convert the domain name to an IP Address because machines only understand numbers.
- A connection is established between your device and the server.
- Your browser sends a request to the server. It means the browser asks for the resources (data).
- The server responds to your request. It means that server will send the resources required to display the page.
- Browser downloads required resources and then renders the page.
This is how INTERNET works in the background before that page loads for you and all this happens within MILLISECONDS!!!
The entire web framework, in my opinion, is the greatest invention in the history of humankind.
There are few more technical stuff related to the World Wide Web and Internet itself but this should give you a basic understanding of how internet works.
Feel free to comment and ask any doubts if you have.
Thanks for the read, I hope you learnt something new. Have a great day ahead!!
Top comments (1)
well explained