How does the internet work?

Networks continually 'talk' to each other about the quickest way to exchange and route information. Internet procedures and standards have been put in place to help assist the networks in working together to perform exchanges. Devices called Routers play a key role in helping create networks through the sharing, sending and receiving of data.

Routers have routing tables which contain information that keeps track of all source and destination computers. They direct and handle internet traffic according to the different rules and priorities that they hold.

When the router receives some data it will use its tables to find the quickest route possible to the destination the data is going. Sometimes this quickest or best route is not always available and so it will find an alternative, the next best route. This is what happens if ever a part of the network becomes broken, the tables reset themselves to direct the traffic using new routes.

What is the internet network made from?

The internet network is made from a server or servers in a 'loop' with other computers using wires or wireless. By being connected in this way, the computers can exchange data with each other. This data can be small things like date and time settings or large items such as videos in users documents.