How Does the Internet Operate?

Video Transcript

"I'm Chris Cook, with Security Awareness Incorporated. I'm going to explain to you the magic of the Internet. The Internet actually started out; a little history, as a group of networks connecting universities and government facilities to share for information for research purposes. As the public was allowed to access to the Internet, and as it grew in speed and capacity it became the Internet as we know it today. This Internet grows exponentially every year, the number of users and also the size and capacity of it as well. The Internet is still a group of networks connected together. AOL is a network; Comcast is a network. There are many different, you know Internet service providers that are networks. You connect to their network, and then their network routes the information through to one of the main backbones on the Internet. What routes information across the Internet is called an IP address. The IP address is a group of four numbers separated by a decimals, so you might have 25.97.15.255. That would be a unique Internet address. Now, the information that you send from your computer goes to your Internet service provider's computer, or router. The router the goes to the Internet and it sends it across a backbone. The backbones are typically managed by the telecom companies, and they're usually large bundles of fire op, fiber optic wires that send the information at light speed. It gets to the other end to another router where it would pass it off to the destination networks, so say if I'm on Comcast and I send my information e-mail to somebody that's on AOL. The AOL router receives the information, passes it across that network to the appropriate user's PC, into their mailbox. That's how the Internet works, and I'm Chris Cook, with Security Awareness Incorporated."