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How does the internet work?

Posted: 22 Mar 2001 12:04 am
by Martin Abend
Is there a website that explains how the internet or at least the www works? I'm plain stupid when it comes to these technical things, so I'd be glad if someone knows something.

Thanks.

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martin abend my homepage chicotarde@web.de
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Posted: 22 Mar 2001 2:58 am
by Everett Cox
Martin-- That is a very general question that might require several large books to adequately answer. Here is a good place to start:

http://howstuffworks.com/sc-computers-internet.htm

Have fun!!! --Everett

Posted: 22 Mar 2001 7:40 am
by Bill Terry
Once you know a little about the technical 'how' it seems somewhat miraculous that it works at all... Image

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bterry.home.netcom.com


Posted: 22 Mar 2001 8:10 am
by John Paul Jones
Martin,

Not knowing something doesn't make you stupid.

JPJ

Posted: 22 Mar 2001 8:40 am
by Bobby Lee
Is there a "Proftpd for Dummies" book? I need one right about now. Image

The internet includes a wide range of things, but the most common uses are web pages and email. The underlying technology is TCP/IP, which stands for "Transfer Control Protocol / Internet Protocol". A protocol is a convention that two entities use to communicate formally with each other.

In TCP/IP, every device has a unique IP address. You may have seen these addresses. Their human readable form is like this: 207.189.56.85 - four numbers between zero and 255, separated by 3 dots.

There are about 4 billion IP addresses (256^4), but each number in the sequence narrows it down quite a bit. In simplified terms, to reach the address above I could send my data to 207.x.x.x where the 207 router would take over. 207, like other routers at its level, handles requests for about 16 million addresses. It would send it to 207.189.x.x which handles about 65,000 addresses. From there it gets forwarded to 207.189.56.x which only has to deal with 256 machines, and then it gets routed directly to the destination machine.

I doesn't really work like that, of course. There are all sorts of smart tricks and shortcuts built into the system, and there are ways for whole networks to share a single IP address. But the system I described above is a convenient abstraction that explains the basic idea.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
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Posted: 22 Mar 2001 5:10 pm
by Vince Smith
Martin,
Ziff-Davis has published a book by Preston Gralla, entitled "How The Internet Works,
Milleninum Edition" . It’s available from Amazon.com.
www.amazon.com
Using the Search function, select "books" and enter the title as the ID.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Vince Smith on 22 March 2001 at 05:14 PM.]</p></FONT>

Posted: 22 Mar 2001 6:22 pm
by Jeff Agnew
b0b,

Just to nitpick, it's Transmission Control Protocol Image

Anything in particular I might be able to assist you with in ProFTPd?

Regards,
Jeff

Posted: 23 Mar 2001 3:35 am
by Martin Abend
You guys are great, thank you very much!
Most of all I need the infos for the "kid's club" of my church that I'm running. They are very interested (aged 13-16) in stuff like that and since I found nobody that would explain this to them I'll have to do this myself...

Hey Everett,

Howstuffworks.com is just fantastic! They had all the info's I needed, and together with b0b's short explanation I think I can handle the job.

Again, thanks you very much!

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martin abend my homepage chicotarde@web.de
s-10 sierra crown gearless 3 x4 - fender hotrod deluxe



Posted: 24 Mar 2001 8:56 am
by Bill Llewellyn
oops...<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 25 March 2001 at 08:56 AM.]</p></FONT>

Posted: 24 Mar 2001 4:39 pm
by Everett Cox
Martin-- Glad you have what you needed. Yes, that web site really has a lot of info. They cover many subject areas and most articles are very well written. It is nice to hear you are passing the help on to the kids. -Ev

Posted: 25 Mar 2001 11:27 am
by Abe Stoklasa
It works similiar to a phone. you type/dial a destination, through wires and connections, it takes you there. I guess............

Posted: 26 Mar 2001 9:24 am
by Jonathan Cullifer
The Internet is nothing but a bunch of computers, most of them just like yours, connected to each other. Internet Service Providers run network lines out to you and they lay cable and connect their networks to others. Each ISP will do this with more than just one other network. Most do it with at least a dozen. And all of these computers that connect to each other is called the Internet.

Internet is TCP. TCP enables you to look at Web pages because it handles sending out the requests for the page and giving you a response.

Many times more than one physical way to get Internet traffic from one point to another (similiar to roads). The IP protocal is responsible for finding the quickest way, bypassing "rush hour" traffic and getting you the content. However, if all of the "roads" are slow, then your connection will be slowed down.

Jonathan

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www.cullifer.com

Posted: 27 Mar 2001 7:58 pm
by Mark Herrick
OK, now explain the 7 layers of the OSI Reference Model...

Image

Posted: 6 Apr 2001 9:24 pm
by Bill Crook
???????

Posted: 7 Apr 2001 2:47 am
by Jack Stoner
C'mon Mark. I went through the OSI model years ago when I went through training on SNA but I've long forgotten it.

Posted: 7 Apr 2001 9:40 am
by Bill Terry
Here ya go... WARNING do not read if you're trying to stay awake.
http://www.msic.com/technical/network_protocol/osi_info.shtml



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