That’s right, good people, the gems I’m dropping on you this month are all about how the internet works.
Talk about taking it back to the basics, right?!
Honestly though, I really appreciate being able to dial it back a bit and talk about this.
We’ve been covering some high-level tech topics on the podcast this season, but the basics are as much a part of leveling up in your tech journey as the specialty knowledge and training you’ll acquire along the way. They’re building blocks, really.
Plus, this is knowledge I know will benefit you no matter what tech path you’re on: systems engineering, cloud engineering, DevOps, and even software engineering.
Gems from Season 2, Episode 7 (TTH Podcast)
So, a question posed to me by one of our listeners went something like this: BobbyD, can you teach us something basic? If I went to a job interview and they asked me how the internet or computers work, how would I answer?
Great question.
Let me start by making these two important points:
Every one of our phones is a computer. Every single one.
Every computer you use/carry talks to another computer.
This said, the way the internet and computers work becomes easier to understand once you’re familiar with all the components.
The simplest way I can break it down is like this:
💎 The cloud is not some ‘bubble in the air.’ Each time you access or do anything with the cloud, your computer is talking to another computer.
💎 An IP address is one of the main things computers use to carry out the ‘talking’ they do with one another. IP is short for Internet Protocol - think of it as a phone number for your computer. The IP tells your computer how to talk to other computers and vice versa.
💎 Computers use an address translation service called DNS (Domain Name System). DNS converts your computer’s phone number (IP address) to a name and from a name to a phone number. If I were to put it into an analogy, it’s basically the yellow pages of the internet.
💎 When you’re using your computer, a sequence of processes/devices are linearly executed to then make it possible for you to visit websites, etc. Example: You go to a website (e.g., Google.com) > Your computer automatically does a translation to let it know which phone number to talk to. The very important intermediary process in all of this is when your computer connects out of its internal network (your WiFi) to your router which is connected to a modem.
💎 Once your modem connects to the internet, you have access to all the other computers and phone numbers on the internet. Your name resolution tells your computer what IP to connect to. From there, your request goes to your internet service provider (ISP) and it sends you a connection to a data center/location that you’re connecting to. Once it gets there, your request is processed and sent back.
Fascinating, to say the least.
In short: The internet is basically wires connected all around the world. But because we don’t physically see those ‘wires,’ we tend to think of the internet as some complex system of networks, numbers, and beeping sounds.
Which, to some degree, it is! But I think you understand what I’m saying.
Again, I appreciate this question. This is similar to one of the interview questions I ask engineers because it helps me gauge if someone is a real engineer of the internet.
Keep letting us know which tech convos y’all want to have so we can enlighten you.