How the Internet works is a questions many new website developers would like to know.  The Internet is a vast series of networks. There is no one defining location for it, and explaining how it works is never easy. However, there is a general basic way that it works, and that can be explained. If you plan to become a webmaster, it is important that you have this basic Internet knowledge.

When you think of the Internet, one must think of a vast area full of rocks. Some rocks are small, and some are large. Some are pretty, and some are downright ugly. You can think of the ugly rocks as weeds that we really don’t need…such as spammers, perhaps. But each rock represents one computer, and each of these computers is called a node, with its own domain name and IP address. Between these rocks, or nodes, are paths.

Essentially, this is what makes up the Internet – nodes and paths. Without most of us realizing it, they are all connected in some way, even though you may have to take multiple paths, past multiple rocks, to get to the rock that you seek.

Server Computer

A server computer is where information that can be accessed by other computers is stored. We can think of these as the bigger rocks in this vast field of rocks. The client computers, which include laptops, desktops, PDAs and even cell phones, are the smaller rocks. Again, all of these things make up the Internet.

You can think of the Internet in the same context as the air outside. You can’t really see it, even though there are components that make it up. It is everywhere – it is all around you, and more vast than you can imagine. There is not one authority that controls it, or one place that it is located. It is everywhere, and essentially belongs to everybody.

Just as the quality of air is not equal in all places, the computers that make up the Internet are also not equal. There is a pecking order, and it all begins with the computers that contain the domain name system. From there, it goes down to servers that host those domains, and then down to personal and business computers that access those domains.

Top Level Domains

Terms like .com, .net, and .org are fairly common to most people these days. These names are stored in a few specialized systems, and these systems are maintained by some non-profit organizations. These systems form the Top Level Domains, or TLD.

Company Networks

Next, company networks form Second Level Domains. Microsoft.com would be an example of this.

Web Hosts

The pecking order continues on down the line, until you come to Web Hosts who use routers and other software for communication, forming a network. Obviously, there is more than one network, and all of those networks eventually feed back into the domain systems, and this is what makes up the Internet.

Personal Computers

So, the next time you wonder about the Internet, and what keeps it operating, remember that even your own personal computer makes up the Internet, in that it uses a web browser to request information from other computers. When you set up a website on a Web Host, you have just become a part of the Internet in a slightly bigger way. If you set up a website on a dedicated server, you’ve become an even bigger part of the Internet.

So now you know how the Internet works. It’s all connected, and you are part of it!