What is Internet access?

Internet is a global compilation of networks, of different sizes and technologies. These networks bond together in a lot of different ways to build up the entity that we know as the Internet. In fact, the term Internet comes from the idea of networks connected all together. In other words, the Internet is global collection of network devices all linked together to form a giant network. These devices “talk” with each other through something known as protocols, which is simply a collection of norms and software. These protocols permit the use of emails; navigate on the Internet; the exchange of files between one PC and another; chat with other people, etc. Every network device that is connected to the World Wide Web is an element of a network, even the one in your home or office. For instance, you can use a DSL router and connect to an Internet Service Provider. At your office, you may be part of what’s called a LAN (local area network), but you will probably still connect to the Internet using a service provider that your company has contracted. When you connect to your internet service provider, you become part of them in network terms. The ISP can then connect to a bigger network and become part of them as well. The Internet is basically a network of networks.

To make these protocols work there must be a method of identifying each device connected to the network. Each laptop or desktop computer connected to the Internet has an identifier known as an IP address. The IP address is basically a series of four numbers split by dots, for example: 10.11.12.13. What goes on when you introduce a Web page address into your browser?

• Someone types in the address www.hardware-computers.com into a Web browser like IE or Firefox.
• The browser transfers this data to software system called DNS (domain name server). Typically this software is running on a machine managed by the people from your ISP. Part of the process with an internet service provider is “informing” you’re PC where the DNS - generally the setup program from the ISP does this so you are hardly ever involved with this process.



• When it receives the Web address, the DNS can “talk” with other DNS running on network devices all over the planet. DNS technology associates the Web address (long name) with an IP address.
• This IP address is then sent back to the browser.
• Once the IP address is received the Web browser knows the exact address of the device it wants to connect to receive the proper Web page.

What these devices – also called Name servers – do, is resolve these names into IP addresses referring to network machines on the Internet. What we call DNS, is the collection of software, programs and hardware that allow the translation of hostnames to IP addresses and the other way around. The procedure is the same when you want to send an email or transfer files between PCs.

Most large Internet companies have their own dedicated networks linking various wide areas that can be regions.  In each area/region, the company has a POP (Point of Presence). The POP is a connection point for local people to connect the company's network. The incredible point here is that there isn’t a top network that takes over all the control. Instead, there are some large networks connecting to each other through what we call NAPs (Network Access Points). To clarify this, imagine that a company called I-provider is a popular ISP. In each city, I-provider has a POP. The point of presence in the cities is a rack full of specific network devices that the users connect to. I-provider own fiber optic lines leased to the phone company to link the POPs together.
Imagine that there’s a second company called N-ISP and it’s a corporate service provider. N-ISP builds N-ISP in some cities and corporations place their Internet server devices in these locations. N-ISP is a large corporation that has its own fiber optic lines between its N-ISP so that they are all connected together.

This way, all of I-provider clients can communicate between themselves, and all of N-ISP clients can communicate to each other, but there is no way for I-provider clients and N-ISP clients to intercommunicate. So, both companies connect to network access points in different cities, and data between the two companies is transmitted between the networks at the network access points.

In the real world, a lot of ISPs connect at NAPs in a variety of places, and a big amount of data moves between the networks at these intersections. The Internet is a compilation of enormous commercial networks that intercommunicate at the network access points. With this system, every network device on the Internet connects to every other.

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