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"Networking: How the Internet Works"

Today's Article is a Chapter from my EBook, "Understanding the Internet for Home Business". The Title sounds boring, but the info is VERY important to understand! I've done my best to make it an interesting read for you. :o)

Note: When I refer to "The Dweebish Language" in this material, I'm referring to "Technical Talk". :o)

Networking is how computers talk to each other. It’s the basis for the very existence of the Internet. To learn about Networking, we’re going to go back to the early origins of the Internet.

 The way the Internet came about, and these basic concepts behind the way it works, are very important for you to understand. The Internet is going to be a critical tool that you will use for your Home Business. The more you understand the tools you use, and how they work, the better equipped you are to succeed.

 I was a Computer Systems Engineer for many years. The things I learned while working in that field were critical in helping me to succeed in my Online Businesses. It’s critical for you to understand these things too, so that you have an important edge over your competition when starting and running a Home Internet Business.

 I’ll do my best to teach you these things in plain language, converting Dweebish Language (Technical Talk!) terms into English as we go. The goal here is for you to really understand the material without having to suffer too much for the knowledge. :o)

 In this chapter, we’re going to cover the very important concepts developed during the first seven years or so of the Internet. I want you to come away from this with a good understanding of some Dweebish Language terms that were very important when the Internet started, and still are today. Those terms are: 

Wait! Come back! I said I was going to make this easy, and I am; so don’t go shaking your head and running for the TV remote just yet!

 While I still have your attention, let’s get on with it!

 Would you believe that the roots of the Internet we use today go back more than forty years?! That’s right. Forty years. I’ve talked to older people who are in their 60’s and 70’s who complain that they just aren’t interested in this new-fangled Internet thingy. Why should they have to learn all this new stuff invented by these hot-headed kids who have nothing better to do than spend their time confusing older folks?

pic04 Guess what, my friends? If you’re in your 60’s, this new-fangled Internet thingy began when you were in your twenties. If you’re in your 70’s, you were in your thirties when it all began. It was YOUR crowd who started this whole thing, so let’s quit griping and get with the program! :o)

 WAY back in the 1960’s, when I was just a kid, there were a whole bunch of military people whose job it was to worry about what would happen to the military’s communications in the event of some kind of disaster. The solution to their worries was the Internet, though they didn’t know it yet.

Now, if you look up your own information on the origins of the Internet, you’ll find some people who will tell you that scientists, in the interest of pure scientific research, began this whole process. That’s all warm and fuzzy and politically correct, but it's just not true that it was purely humanitarian scientific research. Let’s think about it for a moment. Let’s see…the U.S. Department of Defense basically funded the development of the Internet…OK, we know the truth, don’t we? :o) That’s certainly no secret, and there’s nothing wrong with it.

 However, it’s a strangely sad thing about us human beings…more beneficial technology comes out of war, or the threat of war, than from just about any other human endeavor. The Internet is no different.

 With the Cold War in full swing, and paranoia over nuclear war lurking behind every shadow and around every corner, the US Military had to be sure that their “supercomputers” in one part of the country could talk to their “supercomputers” in other parts of the country, without getting interrupted completely if something bad happened that affected part of the system.pic05

Now, the “supercomputers” they used back then were not even as advanced as the technology in a Six Slice BagelMonster Toaster is today. That’s all that was available at the time, though, and they needed to keep it available. They needed a way to keep military and other communications open across the country in the event of a “worst case scenario”.

 Way back in 1962, my biggest concern in life was that my parents got upset with me every time I overturned a bowl of Rice Krispies on my head, and soaked my jammies and my high-chair. (True story!) That was the year that I think my Mother realized that raising kids wasn't going to be as easy as she thought. :o)

 The Department of Defense, however, had bigger concerns in ’62. So, the U.S. Department of Defense’s “Advanced Research Project Agency” (ARPA) got together with a Government Research entity called The Rand Corporation. They began trying to figure out how to make computers talk to each other across the country, and to keep them doing so if part of the system was damaged.

 Remember that back then, many computers were still room-sized monsters that ran on vacuum tubes and used punch cards. Computer “Internetworking” was a completely new thing.

 (Dweebish Language Translation:)

pic03Internetworking (in the 60’s): "Computers in different locations talking to each other over a phone line or other wired connection."

You see, computers didn’t talk to each other much, way back in the early 60’s. That part still had to be figured out! So, it’s no surprise that it took a full seven years (1962 to 1969) before ARPA actually got four computers in different parts of the country to say, “Hey, there!” to one another.

 That had to be a really interesting conversation for the computers:

 Computer 1 to Computers 2, 3 and 4:

            "Hey, there!"

Computer 2 to Computers 1, 3 and 4:

            "Hey, there!"

Computer 3 to Computers 1, 2 and 4:

            "Hey, there!"

Computer 4 to Computers 1, 2 and 3:

            "Hey, there!"

 Hmmm. Alright, maybe not so exciting for the computers. However, it was thrilling, I’m sure, to the researchers at Stanford Research Institute, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. Those places housed the first four computers that made up what we call the Internet today. Back then they called it “ARPANET”, which stood for “Advanced Research Projects Agency Network”. (No, you won’t be tested on that!)

 Want to see a little piece of history? The image shown here is a copy of an actual pencil sketch of the very beginning of the Internet, by one of the people who conceived of it:

pic08 What that sketch shows is those four computers (the circles), connected by phone lines (the long lines), with little name tags (the squares with the short lines) for each computer. Doesn’t look like much, does it? It wasn’t, by today’s standards. If you tried to draw an accurate pencil sketch of the Internet today, you couldn’t do it. I don’t think there are enough trees on the planet to make that much paper and that many pencils. :o)

 It all started with those four computers, though.

 Pretty soon, things really got cookin’. The little four-computer ARPANET was about to grow to 23 “Host Computers“ and “Workstations” at University and Government research centers around the country.

We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, though. I said that it took a full seven years to get those computers to talk to each other. During those seven years from 1962 to 1969, the people at ARPA and Rand were figuring out exactly how to make them do that.

 We’ve just bumped into some more Dweebish Language terms, and this is where it gets interesting.

 Exactly what are “Host Computers” and “Workstations”?

 (Dweebish Language Translation:)

pic02 Host Computer: "A computer that other computers can connect to, so that the Host Computer, and the other computers connected to it, can all talk together."

 

 (Dweebish Language Translation:)

pic01 Workstation: "A small computer (your Home computer, for example) that can connect to a Host Computer. Once it connects to a Host Computer, it can talk to the Host and all the other Workstations connected to that same Host."

 Okay, I know! Those definitions are a little Dweebish themselves, aren’t they? :o) Let’s talk about them in a way we can all understand.

 Who’s Throwing the Party Tonight?

 When you want to get a bunch of your friends together so you can all talk and have some fun, you can hosta party at your house, right? Everybody comes over to your house with chips, drinks, and cookies. You’re all right there, face to face in the same house, and you can sit around and talk. Exchange ideas, kick around some idle conversation, and maybe make a few side bets on what the weird guy's going to do next.

 Let’s get our Guest List together for this party. Because we don’t want this to get too complicated, we’ll keep it down to a dull roar. Just a few people.

 Guest List

  1. YOU, of course, are the Host of the party. Ladies, don’t feel left out…in this case the word “Host” applies to men or women. :o) The party’s at your place. :o)

  1. JERRY FROM WORK. Jerry’s a pretty cool guy, and he always brings food, so he’s in.

  1. JANET NEXT DOOR. Janet is a good friend, and lives next door. She’s always got something funny to say, so she’s good at a party.

  2. pic09THE WEIRD GUY WITH THE HAT. I know; I can never remember his name either. But wherever JERRY goes, THE WEIRD GUY is sure to follow, for some reason. So, we’d better plan for him too.

Now it’s party time, and as the Host, you are ready for your guests.

 Janet shows up first. She lives right next door, so she comes over early to help clean up a little, and get things ready.

 About a half hour later, Jerry knocks on the door, and The Weird Guy with the Hat is standing right behind him. You begin to wonder about Jerry’s need for more of a social life, but Jerry is a good guy, and he’s got an armful of Cheetos and YooHoo. So, in come Jerry and The Weird Guy. :o)

 The Party has begun!

Pretty soon, YOU are whipping everybody at a fast-paced game of Monopoly. Janet is cracking everyone up with a story about her daughter’s hamster. Jerry has an orange ring around his mouth from eating Cheetos, and The Weird Guy is chewing at a button on the sleeve of his shirt.

 Great party!

 Now, let’s relate this Gala Event to the world of Computers and the Internet.

 If you and your guests were all computers, You, Janet, Jerry and The Weird Guy would be called “Workstations”. Sorry about that...not a very flattering term for people, is it? Don’t worry about it…we’re just making a point here.

 (Guys…a little advice. Don’t ever call your Wife or Girlfriend a “Workstation”. I did that once, as a joke, and ended up doing her household chores and my own for a week!).

 Anyway, for our example, let’s pretend that You, Janet, Jerry, and The Weird Guy are all Home Computers, or “Workstations”.

 Now, since YOU have taken on the added role of Hosting the Party, YOU get a promotion! You are no longer just a Workstation. YOU become the “Host Computer”.

Why? Because it’s your house. You are the one who has made it possible for these Workstations named Janet, Jerry, and The Weird Guy to get together and talk. That promotes you to “Host”. Feeling pretty good about yourself, aren’t you!

This is exactly how it works with computers. Any regular old computer that makes it possible for other computers to get together and talk with each other, gets promoted to the level of Host Computer.

 Usually, a Host Computer is a more powerful and expensive computer than a Workstation. As we all know, the Host of a party does more work than the guests. However, a Host Computer does not have to be more powerful than the others. Any ole computer can be a Host. Even your Home Computer can do it.

 Ok, back to the party. As I’ve said, you and your guests are all together in one place. You’re talking, and laughing, and wondering privately about the sanity of The Weird Guy. You are sharing information with each other.

 Guess what you’re doing, in Computer terms?

 You are “Networking”.

As people, you are sitting in the same room, communicating through the connection of your words, and speaking a common language. You can all understand each other. You are “connected” together through the fact that you can see each other with your eyes, and hear each other with your ears, and that you all know a common language. English, for example. You sit in that room and “Network”.pic06

When the term “Network” is applied to computers, it means the same thing. The computers all understand each other through a common computer “language”. They don’t have eyes and ears, though, so they have to be connected by wires in order to see and hear each other. The Host computer and the Workstation Computers are all connected together in the same room by wires, and they are all communicating together through the Host. The Host Computer is the one that makes it possible for all the computers to connect, or Network, together.

 That’s what a Computer Network, and ComputerNetworking, is.

 Pretty simple, isn’t it? :o)

 Now, believe it or not, we’ve already gotten through nearly half of the Dweebish Language terms we need to understand in this chapter! We’ve covered:

 Let’s get to work on the other half, before anybody falls asleep!

 We now know what a Computer Network is. Just a bunch of computers, wired together with a Host computer, that are sitting around talking with each other.

That’s a Network.

 Now, a “Local Area” Network is simply a Network that’s in a “Local Area”! That’s all there is to that one!

 Your party, where You, Janet, Jerry and the Weird Guy are all “Networking”, is a Local Area Network. That’s because it’s LOCAL; it’s all in your house! A Local Area Network is simply a Computer Network that is all wired together in the same room, or office, or building. That’s all it means. Really, I’m not kidding! It’s that simple.

 A Local Area Network is commonly called a “LAN”, for short. (That’s pronounced as in “The plane is LANding”.)

 See how devious the Dweebish People are? The things we’ve discussed so far give a lot of people the willies, because they sound so important and mysterious. They’re not complicated, though, and there will be no mystery by the time we’re done here. :o)

 Let’s review what we have so far. 

 Ready for more? Here we go!

 Let’s say that at the same time you are having the party at your house, another friend is having a party at their house as well, with other guests.

 You know this has happened to you before! You plan a party, and then find out that half your friends are already planning on going to someone else’s house for another party on the same day. <Sigh>!

 OK, let’s take a look at the Guest List of the other party. Again, we’re going to keep it short:

 Guest List:

  1. MONA. She’s your friend across town, and she’s the Host of the other party.

  2. GUS. A friend of yours and Mona’s, although you’re not too happy with GUS right now. He went to Mona’s party, not yours!

  3. ELMONT. Mona likes having ELMONT around, but in your opinion, she can have him. You’ve already got The Weird Guy to deal with.

 So, now we have two parties going on. Each of those parties is a separate Local Area Network. At each party, the Host and the guests are all talking amongst themselves only.

 Party (Local Area Network) #1:

Party (Local Area Network) #2:

 At your house, everybody is still having a great time. Then The Weird Guy starts to complain that he hasn’t seen Elmont in a while, and wonders what he’s up to. Jerry, of course, agrees, and suggests that maybe everybody at your house should pack up the Cheetos and all go over to Mona’s party.

 Anyone who’s had a party before has been in this situation. Suddenly your party guests have become valued possessions that you must hold on to at all costs! The Enemy has infiltrated your camp, and is trying to get your people to defect! It’s time to do something, or soon you’ll be sitting there surrounded by orange Cheetos crumbs and half-empty bottles of YooHoo, all by yourself. One thing is for sure: YOU are not going to give Mona the satisfaction of showing up at HER party after she’s managed to steal your guests and ruin YOUR party!

It’s time for your counter-move. You’ve got to get ahold of the people at Mona’s party, and convince them that they would be having a better time if they were at YOUR party!

 So, what do you do? You turn the music up, to make it sound like the joint is really rockin’. Then you pick up the phone and call Mona’s house. The idea here is to get The Weird Guy at your party to tell Elmont, over at Mona’s party, what a good time Elmont could be having at YOUR party. Then you can get Janet to suggest to Mona that SHE pack up HER party, and come over to YOUR house. If you’re careful, you can keep your own guests, and get everyone at Mona’s to come over to your place too!

 So, you pick up the phone, and call Mona. After exchanging a few pleasantries through clenched teeth, you tell her that The Weird Guy wants to talk to Elmont. A few minutes later, Janet takes the phone and talks with Mona, suggesting that Mona, Gus and Elmont all come over to your place. Then Jerry spends a few minutes using your phone to talk to Gus. And so on.

 Because you, the Host of your party, picked up a phone line and called Mona, the Host of the other party, all the people at both parties are communicating together.

 Can you guess what you’ve done?

 You’ve just created a Wide Area Network!

 That’s right! When you picked up the phone, your Local Area Network connected to Mona’s Local Area Network. Each of your Parties, by themselves, are still separate Local Area Networks. However, the two Parties together, connected over a phone line, have now become a Wide Area Network. (That’s called a WAN for short, and is pronounced the same way as LAN).

 See? This really is easy, isn’t it!

Well, if you liked that, you will like this even better. Do you realize what you, your guests, and the people at Mona’s house are doing right now, by taking turns communicating over that Wide Area Network?

 You are all Internetworking.

 Your two Local Area Networks (Parties) have combined to form one Wide Area Network. All the people that make up both Local Area Networks are communicating with each other over a Host’s phone line. That means they are Internetworking.

 We’re movin’ fast now, so take a breath!

 Ready? Okay, here’s the next biggie: What is the first part of the word “Internetworking”?

 INTERNET!!!

 And there you have it, folks. You have just created a human Internet. You and Mona, the Hosts of your Parties, made it possible for all your guests to communicate over a remote connection (the phone line). You two Hosts have made it possible for two sets of people to Internetworkwith each other from two different locations. That’s an Internet.

Yes, you read it correctly. That’s where this mysterious Dweebish Language word comes from. That’s what the Internet is, and where the name Internet came from, way back in the early days. :o)

 All this “Internetworking” technology is what the people at ARPA and Rand worked so hard to invent back in the 60's. Inventing a way for computers to talk to each other, and then to talk to each other over connections like phone lines. Over those many years, they created those capabilities, and gave them the following names:

 What’s the result of all this work back in the 60's? Yep. The Internet. I should point out that the term “Internet” wasn’t actually used until 1974, by a man named Vinton Cerf, who many call the "father of the Internet". But, that's where it all began. Now you know the basics about what it is, how it works, and even where the word came from!

 Okay, let’s go back to the Party, because it’s not quite over yet!

 Now, pretty soon, a few things are going to happen. You and Mona and your party guests are going to finish talking, and hang up the phone. Since you’ve succeeded in convincing Mona’s guests to come over to YOUR party, your party is going to get bigger. Then, eventually, everyone is going get tired and go home.

 Let’s take a look at what’s going to happen to your Local Area Network and your Wide Area Network (your Internet), when those things happen. 

 Next week, Jerry is planning on hosting a Party, and you’re invited. When you show up, you will then become a part of Jerry’s Local Area Network. Given all the fun we’ve had at your Party today, you can imagine what’s likely to happen at Jerry’s place!

 Okay, folks, the Party’s over. :o) Believe it or not, I’ll bet you now understand the basic Networking concepts that allow the Internet to exist.

 The Internet is simply one extremely large Wide Area Network. One giant Computer Party, with Home Computers (Workstations) dropping by, and leaving, all the time!

 Well, you should now have a good understanding of what basic Networking is. It’s really not that hard, as you’ve seen.

 However, at this point, you may be wondering just why the heck you need to understand this stuff.

 Why the heck do I need to Understand this stuff?

You’re going to find, as you move forward with your Internet business, that a good understanding of basic networking is going to come in handy in a LOT of different ways. Many times you’ll understand what’s going on with your business or your web site without even realizing that you understand it, simply because you know some Networking basics. However, I’ll list just a couple of minor examples of how this stuff can come in handy.

  1. You get your Home Internet Business up and running all by yourself. After a while, the orders are rolling in, and you need some extra help. Your spouse has a computer too, and it would be great if you could both get on the Internet and work on the business from the two computers, instead of just yours. However, you only have one Internet connection. Now, you already have a pretty good idea that more than one computer in your house can use the same Internet connection, but you don’t know how. You figure it’s a good idea to go over to the local "Computers Is Us" store and ask. You can:

    1. Go there without any knowledge of Networking, and say to the sales guy; “Um, I want to put two computers on the same Internet connection. What do I need?” The sales guy is going to think, “Hey, here’s somebody without a clue!” He’s going to sell you a whole bunch of over-expensive stuff that you really don’t need. OR, you can:

    1. Go there and say to the sales guy, “I want to set up and connect a small LAN in my house to a single Internet connection. What do I need?” NOW, the sales guy is going to think, “Hmmm…this one knows what she’s talking about.” He’s going to sell you just what you need, and nothing more.

 Does that sound far-fetched to you? Believe me when I tell you that it’s NOT. I have purchased more computer equipment (for myself, and for very large companies) than most people ever will. I can tell you for a fact that this kind of thing happens all the time. A salesperson will respect someone who has some basic knowledge much more than someone who doesn’t, and will treat them accordingly! 

  1. You have a web site for your Home Internet Business. One day, you go on the Internet to take a look at your site. It’s not there! AAAHHHHHH! What do you do now??? Well, the first thing you are going to do is call the Tech Support person at the Hosting Company you bought your Internet site from. (Hmmm…HOSTING Company. Does that remind you of anything from the chapter you just read?)

 Most Hosting Companies have decent Technical Support people. However, you WILL run into a lazy Tech one of these days, who will talk down to you and will NOT be very interested in helping you.

pic07 So, you call Tech Support, and tell them that you can’t see your web site on the Internet. If you get a lazy Tech, he’s going to say, “Well, I’m trying it here, and I can see your Internet site! There must be something wrong at your end!” That’s a lazy Tech’s favorite tactic. Make you think it’s YOUR problem, and get you off the phone.

 You have two choices at that point.  

    1. If you know nothing about Networking, you can say, “Oh, okay….”, and hang up. You’ll sit there wondering what to do, but there won’t BE anything you can do, until hopefully the problem clears up on it’s own. OR,

    1. You can say to the lazy Tech guy, “Hey, pal, of course you can see it from where you are. YOU are on the same Local Area Network (LAN) as the Host Computer where my web site is! I, on the other hand, am accessing it from the other side of a Wide Area Network (WAN). (The Internet). Did you stop to think that maybe your Hosting Company has a problem with its WAN connection?”

You see, the computer on the lazy Tech’s desk is at the same party as the computer that Hosts your web site.

 They are all in the same office. His computer is on the same Local Area Network. However, YOU are accessing the Host Computer at his Hosting Company over a “phone line” (which today would actually be a "broadband connection", which is a combination of phone and other technologies). He needs to check to be sure that the Wide Area Network (“phone line”) connection from his Hosting Company to the outside world is working properly.

 I know that may seem a little confusing right now, but you’ll get the hang of it. That exact situation has actually happened to me more than once.

 These are just two very simple and basic examples of many different situations you will find yourself in as you work with the Internet. Knowledge is Power, my friend. Basic Networking may seem like something you think you’ll never need to know, but that knowledge will be useful to you in many unexpected ways as you create and grow your business.

If you'd like to read the rest of this FREE EBook, you can find it HERE. :o)


 

Chris Malta
Founder/CEO
Worldwide Brands, Inc.

For more info, please Click Here Now.

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