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How the Internet and the WWW work

Bottom

You now know how the Internet became what it is today, but how does it actually work?

Basics

Simply put, messages are assembled and sent out from your computer to another. The messages are broken in to smaller parts (known as packets) and are sent through the net being directed by routers to their destination.

The route taken by the packets is not fixed, if one router is down the packet gets re-directed. All traffic on the net is sent this way whether it's an e-mail or a file your downloading. After all the packets have arrived at their destination they then get re-assembled so that you may read your e-mail or view the web page you just requested.

Structure

Glossary Top

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This is an unofficial guide, the information expressed here may differ from Agnitum's. There is a support forum (no longer run by Agnitum, but by users) if you need more help this is a good place to start. Where information here conflicts with what Agnitum have told you always go with the information given to you by Agnitum.

Guide/site and images ©Stephen Cox