What the internet actually is
Picture where a web page is kept and what happens to fetch it — and stop thinking of the internet as somewhere you go.
The internet is not overhead, it is not in the air, and it is not a place you travel to. It is a very large number of ordinary computers, in ordinary buildings, joined together by cables — a great many of which lie on the floor of the ocean.
When you look at a web page, you are looking at a copy of a file kept on somebody else’s computer and sent to yours. That machine is called a server, which is a grand word for “a computer whose whole job is answering requests”. It has a plug and a fan and it sits on a shelf.
If it helps: the internet is the postal system, and the web is the letters. Same difference, same relationship.
Key points
- The internet is real machines in real buildings joined by real cables
- A web page is a copy of a file kept on somebody else’s computer, sent to yours
- Everything travels as small numbered pieces and is reassembled at the far end
- The web is the pages; the internet is the network they travel on
What to remember
- Everything you send is chopped into labeled pieces and reassembled at the far end. That one idea explains most of the internet.
- Distance is why a page from Australia takes a fraction longer than one from London. Nothing is broken — light has a speed limit.
- The internet is the road network. Websites, stores and services are the buildings along it.
Try this
Search for “submarine cable map” and have a look at the picture. Find the place nearest you where the cables come ashore. That is the internet you use every day, drawn to scale.
Practice: What the internet actually is. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.