for the first time in history
people & machinery are working together realizing a dream a uniting force that
knows no geographical boundaries without regard to race creed or color a new era
for communication truly brings people together
this is the dawn of the net want to know how it works
click here to begin your journey into the net now exactly what happened when
you click on that link you started a flow of information this information
travels down into your own personal mail room where mr IPP packages it labels it
and send it on its way
each packet is limited in its size the mailroom must decide how to divide the
information and how to package it now the package needs a label contain
important information such as cinders address receivers address at the type of
packet videos
because this particular packet is going out onto the internet
it also gets an address for the proxy server which has a special function as
we'll see later the packet is now launched onto your local area network or
land
this network is used to connect all the local computers routers printers etc for
information exchange within the physical walls of the building the lands a pretty
uncontrolled place and unfortunately accidents can happen
the highway of the land is packed with all types of information
these are IP packets novell packets appletalk packets
they're going against traffic as usual the local router reads the address and
if necessary lives the packet on to another network
ah the router a symbol of control in a seemingly disorganized world will serve
out their policy on this new spirit is your underwater list of his knowledge is
your solution to this little jumpy there he is
systematic and caring methodical conservative and sometimes not quite up
to speed
sorry but at least he is exact for the most part
what
as the packets leave the router
they make their way into the corporate internet and head for the router switch
a bit more efficient than the router the router switch plays fast and loose with
IP packets definitely routing them along the way a digital pinball wizard
if you will what you got in there in there in left over the rhine with that
all right you got here it goes right you eat
it's going anyway you watch out you know what are you
as packets arrive at their destination
they're picked up by the network interface ready to be sent to the next
level
in this case the proxy the proxy is used by many companies as sort of a middleman
in order to lessen the load on the internet connection and for security
reasons as well as you can see the packets are all of various sizes
depending upon their content
the proxy opens the packet and looks for the web address or URL
depending upon whether the address is acceptable
the packet is sent on to the internet there are however some addresses which
do not meet with the approval of the proxy
that is to say corporate or management guidelines
these are samara Lee dealt with
we'll have none of that for those who make it
it's on the road again
yeah
next up the firewall
the corporate firewall serves two purposes
it prevents some rather nasty things from the internet from coming into the
internet and it can also prevent sensitive corporate information from
being sent out onto the internet once through the firewall around our picks up
the packet and places it on to a much narrower road for bandwidth as we say
obviously the road is not broad enough to take them all
now you might wonder what happens to all those packets which don't make it along
the way
well when mr. IP doesn't receive an acknowledgement that a packet has been
received in due time
he simply sends a replacement packet we are now ready to enter the world of the
internet a spider web of interconnected networks which span our entire globe
here
routers and switches establish links between networks now the net is an
entirely different environment than you'll find within the protected walls
of your land out here
it's the Wild West plenty of space plenty of opportunities
plenty of things to explore and places to go
thanks to a very little control and regulation new ideas find fertile soil
to push the envelope of their possibilities but because of this
freedom certain dangers also lurk
you'll never know when you meet the dreaded pain
of death a special version of a normal request being with some idiot thought up
to mess up unsuspecting hosts the pass our packets take maybe by satellite
telephone lines wireless or even transoceanic cable
they don't always take the fastest or shortest routes possible but they will
get there eventually
maybe that's why it's sometimes called the worldwide wait
but when everything is working smoothly you can circumvent the globe five times
over at the drop of a hat
literally and offer the cost of a local call or less
near the end of our destination we'll find another firewall depending upon
your perspective as a data packet the firewall could be a bastiaan of security
or a dreaded and this Airy
it all depends on