So after you click “Send” in your email, what really happens? Where does it go and how does it all get there? While email and the Internet can be complicated, they don’t have to be a mystery.
To briefly summarize, the Internet is a connection of multiple computers connected to each other – a global communication system. However, the World Wide Web is not the same as the Internet (even though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably) – it is one of the services that run on the Internet delivering information. Most computers, by default, have built-in hardware and software that are automatically configured to “talk” to other computers. But back when it all started in the early 1950s, nothing was automatic, as this was a fledgling idea developed by a several private and government entities, including J.C.R. Licklider. In the mid-1980s, many branches of the government started communicating via Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET, which was the world’s first international network. Later this developed into a global system, eventually becoming what we now know as the Internet.
My favorite way of showing how the Internet works is by going to youtube.com and searching for “Warriors of the Internet” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdqss2GvU5M) or www.warriorsofthe.net. It is a fantastic way of visualizing the many steps that the computer and data must go through to get to its destination. The good thing about the Internet and the way it communicates is that it has been standardized so almost any Internet-connected device from anywhere in the world can communicate effectively.
As “Warriors of the Internet” implies, it can be a tricky task for data to get to its destination. But because of the way it’s built, with redundancy, the data gets where it’s going most of the time. It starts out by using a standard set of protocols or means of communicating called the Seven Layer Open Systems Interconnection model, or OSI model. It’s a way of breaking up all of the information into tiny bits so that it can travel as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Remember, all digital data can ultimately be translated to binary, or a series of ones and zeros. After the data is properly configured by software and ready to be sent out of the computer, it utilizes specific hardware designed to understand the destination of the data but not the data itself. Then it uses public “highways” of the Internet to travel to its destination. Once there, the data is reassembled so it can be used.
We can sum up that entire system by visualizing your data as someone getting up off a couch, walking DOWN the steps, out the door, and getting in to a car and getting on the highway. Then they eventually find the exit and streets they need, getting out of the car into another house, and walking UP the stairs to another couch. Naturally, this is done very quickly now, and at least we don’t have to physically do that with each and everything we send or receive from the Internet. QCBN
By Paolo Chlebecek
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