Several billions of people use the Internet every day and only a small percentage of Internet users know how it works, where it comes from, who created it and why it was created. Moreover, we always look for a best and cheapest broadband deal available, comparing prices and packages, download and upload speed as well as looking for an unlimited download but the neglected factor is the information on what exactly is bought. If you use it almost every day, you might want to take a closer look. Here is some important information about this not-so-old invention.
The beginning of the internet
The Internet is believed to have originated in 1969 with the creation of the first ARPANET networks, initially located at four American institutions: in Los Angeles, California and Salt Lake City. In the same year, the first data was sent from one node to another, and once the network was up and running, it began to expand to cover more and more nodes.
An immortal question – Who invented the Internet?
Several people certainly played a role, starting with Joseph Licklider, who headed the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), which was responsible for connecting computers in US departments that didn’t need a central node. The idea was that if one connection broke, the others could continue to function.
Licklider became director of the IPTO in 1962, but already in 1959 he wrote The Human-Computer Symbiosis, which is still considered the most important work for the development of the Internet. In 1963 he again described the idea of creating a network beyond American forces.
Researcher Paul Baran took on the task of creating a data link between computer networks and after a while invented a method called packet switching.
The principle was that the network node receiving the data packets was responsible for sending them to the address specified in the header. If for some reason the address was not available, the data was sent to the next terminal and so on until the end. The packet switching method is still used today to automate data transmission. In the 1980s, the Internet spread to the military and universities, and in the 1990s, the first public Internet browsers were developed.
You use the Internet through your best broadband deal available, but do you know what Internet is? Here are the main concepts of how it works.
Server: allows programs and devices, or clients, to run. They send specific requests to a server, which must respond. For example: we want to get to a certain website, so we send a request to the server, which takes us to a certain website. A server can be any computer with an Internet connection.
Host: its role is to communicate effectively with the other hosts on the network. It can act as a server, but also as a client. A host can be any device connected to the network that participates in the exchange of information, such as a computer or a modem.
Internet Protocols (TCP, IP) – TCP/IP protocols transfer data between computer networks. The TCP protocol works in conjunction with the IP protocol to control the world of the Internet. Its purpose is to provide a communication service called the Internet. Each network has a communication interface designed to perform basic communication functions. TCP/IP protocols were developed to allow communication between systems of different service providers.
DNS server: responsible for converting an address or domain name entered in a web browser into an IP number. Without them, communication on the Internet is impossible or very difficult. DNS servers can be divided into two main types:
Authoritative, which stores domain settings and responds to queries from other DNS servers.
Recursive, which searches for a suitable IP address for a given domain.
The Internet is best explained with a concrete example:
Type any website, for example, Youtube.com, into your browser,
Now our computer sends a query to the DNS server for the IP number of that domain,
For the DNS server to answer the query, it must send a query to the DNS infrastructure, which is based on 13 master servers in different locations, corresponding to 248 top-level domains,
send the query to the servers responsible for the lower level domains,
the server assigned to the name sends the answer directly to the original DNS server, which then sends it to our computer so that we can access the contents of the site.
The difference between fixed and mobile internet
The main difference between wired and wireless internet is that wired internet is a fixed home connection that provides unlimited access to the internet. This can be a fixed telephone line, a fibre optic cable or the internet. Mobile internet is a service offered by mobile phone networks and can be accessed anywhere as long as you are within the coverage area of that network. Access to mobile internet is generally limited and once this limit is reached the speed drops dramatically, making it impossible to use the network freely.
