What is the Internet? “In Simple English”
Think of the Internet the same you think of the Post office mailing system
I can’t begin to count the number of times I have been asked these questions: “What is the internet? and how does it work?”. If you can’t answer these questions with confidence. This article is for you.
So let me start by saying this: YOU DO NOT NEED to know what the Internet is or how it works for you to be able to use it. In the same way, you don’t need to know what are every hardware parts that make up your car or your mobile phone and how those parts work for you to be able to use it.
That being said, knowledge is always better than ignorance. Especially for IT professionals or anybody working with a computer, which is like the vast majority of jobs today. Knowing what the internet is and how it works can help you better navigate the digital modern world we live in today.
Information/data Sharing
- We can use computers and share data without the Internet
- We can connect multiple computers together to share data without the Internet “aka computers network connection”
So imagine we live in a world with computers but no internet. Let’s say you are in working on a work project with 3 other people and you are using your computer to record and store the project information or data.
Using computers and sharing data without the internet
Now, if the other 3 people in your group need access to the project information or data. You can either let them use your computer one person after another or you can make a copy on a flash drive and share it with each one of them. You can clearly see how doing things this way will be tedious, inefficient, challenging, and very limited.
Connecting multiple computers together to share data without the Internet
Another way to share the project data will be to connect your computer together in a network like in an office building or school library, allowing your coworkers to share data directly from each of their workstations. We’ll call it Group A with network 1
Many organizations or companies still use this internal network (aka Ethernet) to share data and information between employees' workstations, different building floors, or office locations.
Ethernet refers to a group of computers connected network in a local office or area — to share data internally
What is the Internet?
Let's say on the other side of the town or state or country or even continent. There is another group of people working on a similar group project and they have also created their Ethernet (computer-connected network to share info/data internally). We’ll call them group B with network 2
Now, group A heard great things about group B. They want to collaborate and share data/information so they decided to join their network.
So group A and group B connect their network 1 and network 2 together into a giant Inter-network “aka Internet”.
To put it simply, the Internet is a giant network of many computers network connected to each other.
Now, over the year many networks got inter-connected to each other from houses, Buildings, Areas, cities, States, Countries, and Continents. This also led to a complex system with a variety of complex admin issues — issues such as who owns this inter-connected system? and who is responsible for it.
So all those networks across Buildings, Areas, cities, States, Countries, and Continents are essentially connected together with cables: Twisted pairs, coaxial cables, and fiber optic cables. Which is referred to as the Internet backbone:
ISP — Internet Service Providers
As you can imagine connecting all these networks is a massive and costly task. This is where Internet Service Providers come in. ISPs are private companies or public government agencies that buy and own the cables (wires), Satellites, or other wireless devices, hardware, and networking infrastructure devices that make up the Internet.
So when you “pay for the Internet”, you are essentially paying a service fee to these ISPs because you’re using their cable or network infrastructure that connects your computer/device or your local home network to the giant internetwork.
These ISPs can be local, national, or international large organizations and companies such as Xfinity, Centurylink, AT&T, etc. you can see the list of all ISPs in the US here.
How do computers communicate across the network?
One way to think about this is to think about the mailing system or network used by the Post office. Where each country has its Postal number; States and cities are given their postal numbers initials; county and neighborhoods are given their full postal number; each house has its postal address; each building and apartment or unit within a building is given a postal address (post office box aka PO box).
The Post office has a set of rules on how things can be mailed, how to package them, what can be mailed, etc. They are laws that protect those packages, and regulations around who can deliver or receive them. You see where I’m going with this, right!!!?
Now, keeping that same train of thinking in mind; unlike the Post office mailing system which ran by people. The internet system is just a bunch of computers connected and sharing information/data packages with each other.
The thing is, computers are machines with zero common sense and can’t process ambiguous instructions. So we need a well-defined set of instructions and communication rules that’ll govern a computer network system. How information should be sent, the format of the package data to be sent, how to secure that information exchange transaction, etc. Those communication rules are referred to as “protocols.”
Therefore, the communication rules (protocols) of the internet is called — Internet Protocols aka IP
So each device gets assigned a unique address called: “an IP address.” the same way each house, apartment, or unit gets assigned a Postal mailing address.
How do Devices get assigned IP addresses?
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol aka DHCP is the standard protocol that governed IP addresses. A DHCP Server is a network server that provides and assigns IP addresses, default gateways, and other network parameters to other servers or devices within a local network (Ethernet). A DHCP server can be configured to assign dynamic or static IP addresses.
Router & Switch
To put it simply, a switch is a network hardware device that is used to connect multiple other devices and networks to expand the Local Area Network aka LAN. Referring back to our illustration, we can use a switch to connect Network 1 of office A to Network 2 of office B.
A router is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. Routers perform the traffic directing functions between networks and on the global Internet.
Your Home router has a DHCP server incorporated into it. Data sent through a computer network, such as a web page or email, is in the form of data packets.
Public vs Private IP addresses
A public IP address identifies you to the giant internetwork. A private IP address is used within a private network (Ethernet) to connect securely to other devices within that same network.
For illustration, when you move to a new house; your ISP gives you one IP address. In the same way, a new building or house is given one postal mailing address. A home router creates a local private network that connects all your devices together; your laptop, computer, smartphone, PS4, etc. A router will also come with “Wi-Fi technology” incorporated in it.
Your home router is then configured using that single Public address provided by the ISP to connect a local home network of multiple devices using their own private IP addresses- this is like multiple people leaving the same house using the same mailing address or multiple apartments in a building using the same mailing address with each its mailbox number.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is a wireless technology used to connect computers, tablets, smartphones, and other devices to a wireless local network (like at your house, coffee shop, library, etc.
Wi-Fi is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves.
Wi-Fi is NOT an abbreviation; the name was simply created by a marketing firm and it was chosen for its pleasing sound.
So as the daily show segment says, if you didn’t know, now you know!😎🥳
Cheers!!!
