How Does the Internet Work?
If all you know about the Internet is that it has a lot of information and that you can find/watch/buy anything there, then this article may be helpful.
In this article, you will learn how the Internet works and how you see it on your screen.
Step No. 1
You buy a device – a computer, a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone or something similar. At first, it can only work in the off-line mode, i.e. you cannot enter the World Wide Web. In order to get there, you need to set up a connection via an Internet service provider. They can give you access via satellite, cable or even (!) phone line (sounds crazy, but some providers still offer this type of connection). By the way, if you connect to the Internet through a neighbor’s Wi-Fi, that doesn't make your neighbor your Internet provider. Although, if you call him this that, there is a chance that he might like it 🙂 And then he will set a password…
When your computer gets Internet access, you can finally surf.
- The Internet, also known as the World Wide Web or just the Web is the computer networks around the world which are integrated with each other and which are designed for data storage and transmission.
The World Wide Web and other data-transmission systems work on the basis of the Internet. According to recent reports, there are 3.58 billion Internet users.
Step No. 2
In order to visit any website, you need to use a browser. At the moment, there is a big variety of browsers, the most popular being Chrome, Edge (Internet Explorer), Safari, and Opera, and Firefox.
Step No. 3
Well, if you are an owner of Windows OS, the first thing you may want to do is to open Internet Explorer (or Edge) and download another browser. To do this, you need to enter the domain name (i.e. the address) of the desired website in the address bar. For example, google.com./chrome or mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/new
Step No. 4
If you want to visit any website, you will need the help of DNS servers.
- DNS stands for Domain Name System
A DNS server is something like a telephone directory - you ask it for a domain name and it tells your computer the IP address of the requested page. It makes web-surfing much more convenient, because it is easier to remember a certain letter address (such as vertex-academy.com) instead of a sequence of digits like 78.46.145.62.
- An IP address (Internet Protocol Address) is the unique address for the node in the computer network.
Each device in the network has a unique IP address. It consists of four groups of decimal numbers between 0 and 255, which are separated by periods. For example: 175.0.217.21.
What is the maximum number of digits in an IP address? [Answer at the bottom of the page]
Step No. 5
The DNS server gives the unique number to your computer and now the browser can connect to a server that hosts your desired site.
Step No. 6
When the web server receives the request from your browser, it displays the requested page to you. So many words to describe it, and yet it happens in the blink of an eye 🙂
A Few Words about Domains
Domain names serve as identification and addresses of network nodes and web resources, which are located at them in a palatable form. At the moment, there are more than 250 million registered domains and if you want to create a website with a nice, catchy name, it’s likely that it is already in use by someone else. It may sound sad, but imagine how difficult it will be our descendants 🙂
The fully qualified domain name consists of the domain name itself and of the names of all the domains in which it is included, divided by periods.
For example, “mail.google.com” denotes the third-level domain “mail”, which belongs to the second-level domain “google”, which belongs to the top-level domain “com”, which in turn belongs to the unnamed root domain “.”
- TLD (Top-Level domain) is the highest level after the root level.
- Root domain is the domain of the highest level. This domain is serviced by root DNS servers, which are located in different parts of the world. It is displayed with the period at the end of an address.
There are many top-level domains, but it is easy to understand their purpose with the help of their names. For example:
.com (commercial) – for commercial organizations
.org (organization) – for non-profit organizations
.net (networks) – for network structures
.int (international) – for international organizations
.de (Deutschland) – for Germany
.ua (Ukraine) – for Ukraine
I hope that you're no longer afraid of these terms, but if you have any additional questions, please ask in the comment section or visit us and get acquainted 🙂
If you’ve made it this far, and you're still curious about the answer to the question "What is the maximum number of digits in the IP address?" - well, it’s a high time to put the cards on the table :). The maximum number is 12. Remember how an IP address consists of four groups of numbers between 0 and 255? That means that the shortest IP-address is 1.0.0.0, and the longest is 255.255.255.255.