How Does the Internet Work?
Understand how the internet operates, from browsers to servers, and how data flows to bring web pages to your screen.
Ready to start your journey into front-end web development? You open your laptop, fire up your web browser, and type www.educative.io into the address bar. But but do you know what’s happening behind the scenes when you hit ‘Enter’? What triggers that cascade of events that ultimately brings the webpage to your screen? Let's break down this fascinating process, step by step, from the moment your finger hits that Enter key until the website appears in front of you.
1. Web browser: Your digital navigator
Your web browser (like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) is your personal tour guide for the Internet. It’s responsible for interpreting all the content you see—web pages, images, videos, everything. The moment you type www.educative.io into the browser’s address bar, it kicks off the action by starting a request to find and load the Educative website.
Web Browser = Your digital navigator
It makes requests, processes responses, and displays the website.
2. URL: The internet’s home address
The text you entered, www.educative.io, is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator)—like the home address of Educative on the Internet. Every time you visit a website, the URL directs your browser to the right location on the web, just like how a home address directs mail to the correct house.
URL = The web address of Educative
It tells the browser where to go to find the website.
https: The protocol that defines how data is securely transferred between your browser and the website.
www: A subdomain that indicates the website is part of the World Wide Web.
Domain name: The unique identifier for a website, representing the brand or organization.
Domain extension: The top-level domain (TLD) that follows the domain name, which can indicate the website’s purpose, type, or location (e.g., .com, .org, .io).
3. DNS: The internet’s phonebook
Before your browser can actually find the Educative.io website, it needs to know the exact location on the Internet. The Domain Name System (DNS) acts like a phonebook. It takes the human-friendly URL (www.educative.io) and converts it into an IP address—a numerical address that computers understand. Think of the DNS as the Internet’s phonebook, helping your browser find the exact server where the Educative website lives.
DNS = The phonebook of the Internet
It translates the URL into an IP address, allowing your browser to find the website.
Here www.educative.io is the URL for Educative's website and
is the IP address of it.
4. Request: Knocking on Educative’s door
Now that your browser has the IP address from the DNS, it can make a request to Educative’s server. Think of this as your browser knocking on the door of Educative, asking, “Hey, I’d like to view the front-end web development course!”
Request = A message from your browser asking for web content
It’s a digital package that contains information about what page or content you’re asking for.
5. Server: The brain behind the website
When your request reaches Educative.io’s server, it’s like a smart librarian. The server is a powerful computer system that holds all the web pages, course content, and user information. It listens to your request, figures out which page you’re asking for, and then prepares the right response.
Server = The powerful brain that hosts the website
It processes incoming requests, fetches the relevant data, and sends responses back to your browser.
6. Storage/database: Educative’s library
Educative’s server doesn’t keep all the information out in the open—it stores everything in databases or filesystems, like a well-organized library. When the server gets your request for the front-end development course, it searches through its databases, finds the course material, and prepares it for delivery.
Storage/Database = Educative’s library
It stores all course content, user information, and other data, ready to be retrieved by the server.
7. Response: The course is on its way
Once the server has found the front-end development course you requested, it sends a response back to your web browser. This response contains all the information your browser needs to display the course page—text, images, videos, code examples, everything. The browser receives this response and renders it into the beautiful course page you see on your screen.
Response = The server sending the course page back to your browser
It contains all the data needed to display the page.
Before we dive into the contents of the next lesson, take a moment to answer the question below.
This is how the whole process works (before proceeding to slides, please answer the above question):
This entire process happens in a matter of seconds, but behind the scenes, it’s a complex dance of technologies working together to deliver the content you need—all so you can start learning front-end web development without ever needing to understand the technical magic happening in the background!