| How Does The Internet Work |
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Concept
The Internet is simply a very large network of networked computers. You may have a network setup in your office, which allows you to access files on other computers on that network. When you connect to the internet, you are actually connecting to your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) network. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) then connects to another high-level network (which other ISP's also connect to). These high-level networks are called Network Access Points (NAPs). A Network Access Point is a location that several ISPs agree to connect to, which give users on their network access to other networks. NAPs all over the world are connected, which is how you are able to access a webpage (for example) that may be hosted on the other side of the world.
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What is an "IP Address"?
Every computer on the Internet is assigned a unique number to identify who they are. This number is referred to as an "IP Address". The "IP" stands for "Internet Protocol", which is the standard language that computers use to communicate over the internet.
For more detailed information, visit this HowStuffWorks.com article.
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Domain Names
When you want to visit a website, it is much easier to remember a Text Name than it is to remember numbers. When you visit www.dbsinfo.com, your computer is actually going to this IP Address: 66.193.58.50. Instead of you remembering 66.193.58.50, you simply have to remember "dbsinfo.com" (which is called a "Domain Name"). When you go to www.dbsinfo.com, your computer will first connect to a Domain Name System (DNS) server to find out what the IP Address is for that Domain Name. Once your computer has the IP Address, it now knows where you are trying to go.
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Connecting
Once your computer knows what IP Address to go to, it doesn't typically connect directly to that computer. Instead, it "hops" from one location to another. Your computer may access several other computers/routers before reaching it's destination. Once it reaches it's destination, your computer will begin sending packets of data to the receiving computer. See diagram below from www.howstuffworks.com.
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Data Packets?
Everything you do over the internet involves Packets of data. If, for example, you are a Hosted PST User, when you are adding a new job, you are sending Packets of data to our server. Instead of your computer sending a large amount of data at once, it sends several small amounts of data over the internet. This way if something goes wrong during this process the data doesn't need to be completely resent (only the packet of data that was lost would need to be resent). Each data packet contains three items: Header, Payload, & Footer. The Header contains your IP Address, our IP Address, Protocol (which tells the computer if the data is an email, web page, etc), and a Packet Number. The Payload includes the actual data that you are transfering. The Footer contains information to let the computer know that it has reached the end of the packet.
Once the receiving computer starts receiving these Packets of data, it puts all of the packets in order (by using the Packet Number in the Header) & uses the Protocol to interpret what type of file it is putting together. If any packets are missing, the receiving computer will send a message back to the sending computer to resend those packets.
This entire complex set of steps occurs everytime you do anything over the internet. The amazing part is that this all happens in less than 1 second!
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Tools
PingPlotter - We have used this program with a lot of success. PingPlotter will connect to an IP Address / Domain & send "pings" to that location. It will display the number of "Hops" it took to arrive at it's destination. It will show you the IP Address of each hop & will also show if you are losing any packets along the way. If any packets are lost, PingPlotter will display where the packet loss occured. This is a very valuable tool for troubleshooting connectivity problems.
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