[Revised 17th January 2023 and February 22nd 2024]
Now there’s a question. Once upon a time it was a little easier to answer. You connected your computer with a piece of wire to a socket in the wall and beyond the wall was ??
So perhaps it’s never been easy to answer that question. It’s not magic, it’s not fluffy, it’s actually really complicated technology which works in a relatively simple way to make things relatively easy for us to use it. Let’s start with a few videos …
How does the internet work? – This [updated] BBC Bitesize page (produced for children) is a really good starting point to help you understand how the internet works and introduces some of the terminology (ie protocols, packets) that will be useful to you to understand the other videos.
How the Internet Works in 5 Minutes – the internet is not a fuzzy cloud. The internet is in effect a wire (or a fibre-optic cable), actually buried in the ground or carried as wires between posts. Computers connected directly to the internet are called Servers, while the computers you and I use are clients, because they are not connected directly to the internet, but through an Internet Service Provider. Mobile devices away from the home, connect to the internet using radio-waves to connect to cell-towers with increasing capacity being generated by increasing the frequency modulation of the waves (ie 3G, 4G, 5G and even 6G). Mobile devices in the home or in the office, or in public hot-spot spaces, use WiFi to connect to the internet using two frequencies – 2.4GHz and 6GHz. All of these require Routers to shuttle packets of information across the internet, and transmit e-mail, pictures, and web pages. Although this video is a little dated, it really does explain the process of what happens when you connect to the internet …
A more recent video and the ones that are referenced at the end of the video will get you a long way to understanding the technology that makes up the Internet.
How Does the Internet Actually Work? – this discusses how internet traffic can be labelled to ensure that packets of data can arrive at their destination with the minimum amount of disruption [- but it is a biased view in favour of scheduling]. However for an impartial point of view of Net neutrality, you should probably look at this video produced by Vimeo – strong supporters of Net Neutrality …
Finally a couple of alternative views of the internet. First, Andrew Blum (in a TED Global talk) philosophically examines What is the Internet, really? A journey that started for him when he found out a squirrel had chewed through a cable led to him exploring trans-ocean cables and the very physical nature of the internet – a wire! Then this rather entertaining video …
… takes us from very local internet and cell-phone technology, through an examination of data centres such as the former Western Union office at 60 Hudson in Manhattan, to laying ocean cables and the future with balloons acting as transmitting stations for low-density inhabitation, or remote areas.
You might also be interested in seeing a Google Data Centre, in particular the pieces on security and cooling are interesting. [However, all of this increasing use of the internet comes at a cost to our environment as the advance of Artificial Intelligence and its huge need for energy for increased computing power comes at a cost.]
Boot-up
Phishing quiz – https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-quiz-help-spot-phishing-emails/ – any feedback? [Ted was concerned about providing his details at the start of the Quiz. His fears were understandable, but unnecessary – read the Comment beneath this post, from me.]
Google’s apps to help the hard of hearing [Ted, Jim, Martin]. Unfortunately (and as I clarified at the meeting) – it’s not possible for me to check every link for accuracy or relevance. All I can do is point you in possible directions. I will only make recommendations when I actually use the software, or hardware, that I write or talk about. Thus it’s unfortunate that Ted wasn’t able to test the apps referred to in this piece from the previous meeting. One because it wasn’t in Google’s Play Store, the other because it required a more recent Android device than the one he had. Such is life! Martin however brought in some information that I found on the Internet as well, and I’m pleased to be able to provide the link here.
Mesh networks [Paul]. Paul was so impressed in the process of doing his research he even ate his own dog food and purchased a system. He’s going to discuss it, and other ways of improving your home WiFi in the session he’s going to lead on March 28th.
Any other member issues?
Well … David Hughes’ impassioned plea for guidance on buying TV systems, was met with much agreement so I’m going to do a session on that next time, as well as a bit more on websites – following on from todays’ session. News
Getting more out of your camera with your iPhone. How hackers break into your Bank accounts. Sharing files between your iOS device (iPhone or iPad) and your Mac. Mesh WiFi on a budget. How to find your iPhone in the house, when it’s muted. Don’t want to use Dropbox to share a file with anyone – here’s five other ways of doing it. Be frightened, really, really frightened … maybe. How the web works
I’ve shown this before, but it’s a good place to start and a refresher for what I’m going to work towards …
Well from this you can see the importance of IP Addresses, and there’s reference to how information is broken down into packets, but it’s difficult to envisage just how this works. Watch this and all will be explained …
However there’s no reference to Domain Name Servers (or DNS) – which the first short film mentioned and perhaps surprisingly these are probably the most important part of the internet – the piece that really makes it work.
Then we need to look at the components that we use, that make the internet usable to us. We’ve had quite a discussion this year about what is a browser, I wish I’d found this (rather dated but still accurate) little clip before …
So we have a client (your browser – Brave, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge, etc) and there is the information you want to look at which is stored on servers. We know that your client has to translate a web address (a URL – uniform resource locator) into an IP address using domain-name lookup, and then route packets across the internet from the client to the server, which then sends the information requested back to the client. But how does this work given there are so many different devices, and quite a few different browsers?
The answer is to be found in protocols (again as mentioned in the first video) of which the most important is http (or HyperText Transfer Protocol); in fact this is the assumed protocol that the browser will try and use, unless it’s told otherwise; so much so that you no longer need to precede your URL with http:// – your browser just assumes that is what you’re going to use. To make this protocol more secure, a later development has been the introduction of SSL (secure socket layer) and https:// – but I’m not going to go into how this works, at least not today!
But having a protocol (how you talk to another device) is just the starting point. It’s no use for devices to talk different languages to each other! That’s where HTML (HyperText Markup Language) comes in – it’s an instructional language that tells a device exactly how the information should be displayed on a screen, or on a smartphone, or on any device connected to the internet.
At first if you wanted to display certain kinds of content you had to have plugins installed in your browser – of which the most notorious was Adobe Flash player – for showing video clips; but other approaches have been to use a programming language plugin, such as Javascript, or to devise systems which can interact with database content, such as Active Server Pages. None of these are particularly recommended nowadays as there were found to be the potential for many security issues. So now most of the effort in HTML is to improve the code, and that is where we are with HTML5 – the latest iteration of the language.
As the range and type of devices has proliferated, eg smartphones, smartwatches, tablets – to name but three, so the language has had to be extended and expanded to cope with devices to become responsive which is the term used to describe the behaviour of a webpage when you rotate a webpage, change the size of a browser window, embed a video in a page (as I have done in this page today), or choose to show a pop-up window on a page.
So to conclude – what does a webpage look like under the hood so-to-speak.
Do you want to see? Here’s the HTML for this page
=====
<span style=”font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;”><strong>Boot-up</strong></span>
Phishing quiz – <a href=”https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-quiz-help-spot-phishing-emails/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-quiz-help-spot-phishing-emails/</a> – any feedback? [Ted was concerned about providing his details at the start of the Quiz. His fears were understandable, but unnecessary – read the Comment beneath this post, from me.]
Google’s apps to help the hard of hearing [Ted, Jim, Martin].
Mesh networks [Paul].
Any other member issues?
<span style=”font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;”><strong>News</strong></span>
Getting more out of your <a href=”https://www.cultofmac.com/607708/apple-shows-us-how-to-make-the-most-of-iphones-camera-features/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>camera</a> with your iPhone.
<a href=”https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/methods-hackers-bank-account/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>How hackers break into your Bank accounts</a>.
<a href=”https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-airdrop/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Sharing files between your iOS device (iPhone or iPad) and your Mac</a>.
<a href=”https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/amplifi-instant-review/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Mesh WiFi on a budget</a>.
<a href=”https://www.cultofmac.com/608840/find-iphone-muted/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>How to find your iPhone in the house, when it’s muted</a>.
<a href=”https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/dropbox-quickest-ways-share-file-si/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Don’t want to use Dropbox to share a file with anyone – here’s five other ways of doing it</a>.
<a href=”https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/internet-of-things-hacks-exploits/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Be frightened, really, really frightened … maybe</a>.
<span style=”font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;”><strong>How the web works</strong></span>
I’ve shown this before, but it’s a good place to start and a refresher for what I’m going to work towards …
<iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/128575085?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
<a href=”https://vimeo.com/128575085″>BBC Computing — How Does The Internet Work?</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/splinterdesign”>Splinter</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.
I’ve also shown this before, and again it’s worth just a quick look to explain how <strong>routers</strong> and <strong>IP addresses</strong> work.
<iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/7_LPdttKXPc” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
Well from this you can see the importance of IP Addresses, and there’s reference to how information is broken down into <strong>packets</strong>, but it’s difficult to envisage just how this works. Watch this and all will be explained …
<iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ewrBalT_eBM” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
However there’s no reference to <strong>Domain Name Servers</strong> (or DNS) – which the first short film mentioned and perhaps surprisingly these are probably the most important part of the internet – the piece that really makes it work.
<iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/72snZctFFtA” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
Then we need to look at the components that we use, that make the internet usable to us. We’ve had quite a discussion this year about what is a <strong>browser</strong>, I wish I’d found this (rather dated but still accurate) little clip before …
<iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/BrXPcaRlBqo” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
So we have a <strong>client</strong> (your browser – Brave, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge, etc) and there is the information you want to look at which is stored on <strong>servers</strong>. We know that your client has to translate a web address (a <strong>URL</strong> – uniform resource locator) into an IP address using <strong>domain-name lookup</strong>, and then route packets across the internet from the client to the server, which then sends the information requested back to the client. But how does this work given there are so many different devices, and quite a few different browsers?
The answer is to be found in <strong>protocols</strong> (again as mentioned in the first video) of which the most important is <strong>http</strong> (or HyperText Transfer Protocol); in fact this is the assumed protocol that the browser will try and use, unless it’s told otherwise; so much so that you no longer need to precede your URL with http:// – your browser just assumes that is what you’re going to use. To make this protocol more secure, a later development has been the introduction of SSL (secure socket layer) and https:// – but I’m not going to go into how this works, at least not today!
But having a protocol (how you talk to another device) is just the starting point. It’s no use for devices to talk different languages to each other! That’s where <strong>HTML</strong> (HyperText Markup Language) comes in – it’s an instructional language that tells a device exactly how the information should be displayed on a screen, or on a smartphone, or on any device connected to the internet.
At first if you wanted to display certain kinds of content you had to have <strong>plugins</strong> installed in your browser – of which the most notorious was Adobe Flash player – for showing video clips; but other approaches have been to use a programming language plugin, such as Javascript, or to devise systems which can interact with database content, such as Active Server Pages. None of these are particularly recommended nowadays as there were found to be the potential for many security issues. So now most of the effort in HTML is to improve the code, and that is where we are with <strong>HTML5</strong> – the latest iteration of the language.
As the range and type of devices has proliferated, eg smartphones, smartwatches, tablets – to name but three, so the language has had to be extended and expanded to cope with devices to become <strong>responsive</strong> which is the term used to describe the behaviour of a webpage when you rotate a webpage, change the size of a browser window, embed a video in a page (as I have done in this page today), or choose to show a pop-up window on a page.
===== Finally, there’s a lot of information about the internet, going online, and what you can do on the BBC’s Webwise pages – a real shame it’s not being updated anymore.
