How The Internet Works

This article explains how communication between two computer happens through the internet. First we will make the fundamentals clear. There are a lot of keywords that we constantly hear but don’t have  afull understanding of the technical meaning or use of it.

Each computer has a IP address which can be static or dynamic based on the ISP provider [Internet service provider]. The ISP provider has application pool / server which is used for billing and administration, which is called DHCP.

The ISP provider buys the network bandwidth from top NSP [Network Service Provider] , big internet giants who maintain the connection using optical cables/underground cables that run across the globe. This NSP are all interconnected and maintain a mess of webs around the world.

So now back to the concept of communication, which is sending/receiving messages, we will consider two main scenarios,

  • Requesting a website
  • Sending an email

First when we type a website url in browser and hit enter, it will be registered to a domain and a DNS entry will be made, just consider it a big data table where the IP address of the server which is hosting the Website pages/files is mapped to a domain name.

Example- 123.45.34.456 --> www.mysite.com

Now a request will be made to the IP address of the server from our computer once the server get a request, it will provide a response back to our computer in encrypted form [depending on the type of website] which is decrypted and displayed in our browser.

For sending mail STMP uses protocols which are basically "different ways of communication."

The above process is just a bird's eye view, in my next article, we will learn more  about the port number and protocols. 

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