How the Internet Works

1. What is the Internet? 

The internet is the world's largest WAN. Made up of millions of smaller networks, users can find everything online such as web pages, email, IM, FTP sites, online games, and more. Rooted in the early 1960s, the Internet was limited only to the government. It was first thought of by ARPA, advanced research project agency. The Internet was first used by the three computers, two in California, one in Boston.

2. What is a protocol?

Rules for how computers in a network communicate with each other are called network protocols. They control or enable the connection, communication, and data transfer between two computer endpoints. HTTP, hypertext transfer protocol, at the beginning of every URL is an example of a protocol the computer uses. There is also FTP, file transfer protocol, and TCP transmission control protocol. Internet Protocol (IP) is the rules used to send and receive messages using the Internet.

3. What is DNS?

Domain Name Service. It translates addresses/domain names into the IP address to locate computer services online. DNS is like a phone book. It looks up a host name and returns an IP address, also vice versa. DNS servers only have limited information and if it doesn't have information on the requested domain, it looks to other DNS's servers