Internet Basics for Dummies

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Updated – January 21, 2023

The basics for understanding the Internet - let's play it stupid... - Anyone who has seen the Feuerzangenbowle with Heinz Rühmann knows this saying about the functionality of the steam engine that is discussed there.

If you don't know it, you've at least heard it from Google, which is probably one of the most frequently used search engines on the Internet today.

But how does it work that if you google.de also ends up on this search engine?

The comparison with the good old telephone book is of course flawed, but it offers a good basis:

In the past, if you were looking for a phone number for a friend, you would at least need their name and the city in which they lived. Then you needed the phone book for that city and looked up the name. This had an area code that had to be placed in front of the telephone number. If the acquaintance was also called Müller, then the first name was helpful. If this was also a frequent occurrence, then only knowledge of the street helped to locate exactly that “Müller” and find his phone number. And if he lived in a shared apartment, then the extension was also relevant, provided of course that the person he was looking for lived in Germany.

On the Internet, the country code, area code and telephone number, as well as the extension number, are shown as a so-called IP (Internet Protocol) address. All four number components, separated from each other by a point, can each have values from 001 to 255. For example, Google.de has the address 008.008.008.008.

This address corresponds to the IPv4 standard and offers an address space of 4 billion addresses. The IPv6 standard, which is currently still operated in parallel, allows an address space of almost one sextillion (3.4 x 10³⁸).

DNS

Now, a total of twelve-digit number sequences are not particularly memorable compared to name names. That's why there is a type of telephone directory information on the Internet, the DNS (Domain Name Server). These set the input of the name Google.de into the above-mentioned number sequence 008.008.008.008 or 8.8.8.8.

Let's see which route a search query takes when someone in Cuxhaven Google.de in the address bar of the browser on a computer. There is a command for this traceroute (follow the route) on Mac OS, tracert on Windows.

The way to the goal

traceroute 8.8.8.8 or traceroute google.de

• Computer 192.168.1.16 via WLAN -> Router (internal DNS; e.g. AVM FritzBox) – 192.168.1.1 – 1,068 ms
• Router -> D – Kassel – 88,134,189,230 – 12,891 ms
• -> D – Kassel – 88,134,192,186 – 13,906 ms
• -> D – Darmstadt – 145.254.3.62 – 17,076 ms
• -> D – Darmstadt – 145.254.2.215 – 17.146 ms
• -> USA – CA – Mountain View – 72,14,194,138 – 15,443 ms
• -> USA – KS – KansasCity – 8.8.8.8 – 18,787 ms

The total time required for this route across half the globe, with a total of six data centers involved, is 86.37 ms - a fairly quick response.