How The Internet Works [Infographic]

Most of us have a reasonable understanding of how the internet works – but it can be notoriously difficult to explain in plain English. This infographic from Internet.Frontier does a pretty good job of breaking it all down in easy to understand language.

Throughout its lifespan, the technology driving the world wide web has been described variously as “a series of tubes” (US Senator Ted Stevens) to “a complete substitute for life” (UK journalist Andrew Brown.)

In basic terms, the internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. In other words, it’s a series of rules that allows distant computers to communicate with one another.

The infographic below explains how everything works, from how laptops gather website information to how code is translated into a web page. This is all rudimentary stuff, but as a primer for kids and ‘net novices, it gets the job done.

[Via Internet.Frontier]


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