Hi gfkostas,
Your question, while straightforward enough, can open the way to some
very complex technical discussions. I'm judging that you want your
answer to be a high level consideration of how data moves on the
Internet rather than an explanation of the underlying hardware and
software technology needed to make it all work.
At its simplest conceptually, the Internet is much like the postal
system - it is simply a way to connect one location to another
location so that information can be sent back and forth between those
locations. In the postal system, this is accomplished primarily with
human mail carriers, trucks, and airplanes/ships/trains. Each
deliverable postal location is designated by a unique address made up
of a number, street name (a post office box number may substitute for
those two items), a city, a state (or province or other such
designation, depending on the country), and a country (often with
something along the lines of a zip code to streamline the process).
The Internet likewise connects individual computers ("nodes") together
by assigning each such location a unique address called an IP
(Internet Protocol) Address. And, like the postal service, each data
"packet" sent over the system will typically make a number of stops
along the way (at Internet nodes) where it is analyzed, sorted, and
sent further on its journey. This dynamic routing along the data path
is necessary to balance traffic loads (telephone lines can get
overloaded) and to bypass hardware malfunctions which may from
time-to-time disable parts of the network.
There are a number of sources offering greater detail about how this
all works. You have requested specificity and web page links to answer
your question, so I'm providing three very good ones which will
provide a high level view of data movement on the Net.
This website has a very concise explanation of how phone lines are
utilized by the Internet to connect billions of computers worldwide:
http://www.gianace.com/dispensa/internet/internet.htm
Because it is essential to understand the Internet's addressing scheme
in order to comprehend how data is exchanged on the Net, you may wish
to look at these two Webopedia.com sites (then follow hyperlinks
within them to examine as much detail as you find relevant) -
"IP Address" at http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/IP_address.html and
"Understanding IP Addressing" at
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/IPaddressing.asp
For a cool graphic representation of all the connections data may make
going from one part of the world (in this example it's Florence,
Italy) to another site, and how long the data "lingers" at each stop,
go to this webpage and type in any site you want to see Florence
connected to (try entering "google.com", for instance - when I tried
this, it took 23 connections and 1,749 milliseconds to get data from
the Italian site to Google): http://www.visualroute.it/vr.asp
I trust this answer provides the information you're seeking. If it is
not completely satisfying, please use the "Request Answer
Clarification" before you rate my answer, and I'll get right back to
you.
Thanks for using Google Answers,
ericynot-ga
Google search utilized: "data travel" internet |
Clarification of Answer by
ericynot-ga
on
06 Jan 2003 11:00 PST
Hi gfkostas,
You caught me by surprise here because your Request for Clarification
does seem to be well beyond the scope of your original question. It
also dips into much more complex technological discussions, but I'll
try to provide you with adequate additional resources for study. (Keep
in mind that you're asking for information so extensive that it is
simply not going to be available on a single web page - there are many
different technologies undergirding the Internet.)
Let's start with this page, particularly the section entitled "How
Information Gets Around", because it's quite straightforward and
simplified: http://www.valemountlearningcentre.com/inettrans.htm
Here's a basic explanation of the Internet which I've included mainly
because it has a nice diagram: http://uk.geocities.com/eclipse_tbs/
Going one level deeper in complexity is this well-written treatise by
Howard Gilbert of Yale University:
http://www.yale.edu/pclt/COMM/TCPIP.HTM
Here's the best explanation of TCP/IP, and related, protocols I've
found. I think this "Introduction to the Internet Protocols" by the
Charles Hedrick of the Computer Science Facilities Group at Rutgers
University will answer most of your questions:
http://oac3.hsc.uth.tmc.edu/staff/snewton/tcp-tutorial/
Here's an excellent discussion of character encoding (you may wish to
start by reading the "Conclusion" of this study):
http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/pclt/encoding/
I believe that studying the sites I've provided above, in the order
I've listed them, will give you the information you requested. If not,
please let me know.
ericynot-ga
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