Networks and the Internet
How computer networks work: connected computers can share information, the internet is a network of networks, and services like the world wide web, email and video calls all travel over it as data passed from machine to machine
What a learner can do afterwards
- Explain the difference between the internet (the connected computers) and the world wide web (one service that runs on it)
- Describe how a message or web page travels from one computer to another through cables, wifi and routers
- Name several services the internet provides (e.g., web pages, email, video calls, online games) and what they have in common
The lesson
A network is two or more computers connected so they can share information, like files or messages. Connect networks all over the world together, and you get the internet: a huge network made of many smaller networks.
People sometimes mix up two words. The internet is the actual connection: the cables, wifi signals and computers that link everything together. The world wide web is just one service that uses that connection. It is the web pages and links you open in a browser.
Amara sends a photo to her cousin in another city. Her tablet breaks the photo into small pieces and sends them out over wifi. The pieces travel through routers and cables until they reach her cousin's phone, which puts them back together into the same photo.
Web pages, email, video calls and online games all look different on your screen, but underneath they travel the same way: as data passed from machine to machine over the internet. The web is only one of those services.
The internet is the network of connected computers and cables; the web, email, video calls and games are all services that travel over it.
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Where it sits
Learn first
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Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.