The Internet: First Steps To Backend Development
To some, it’s the mobile data on their phone, to others it’s the bill they pay monthly (internet bill), to me (when I’m not in work mode) it’s the ability to access social media. But it goes beyond that, it’s a very interesting concept and I’d love you to join me in exploring the Internet and how data is shared across multiple devices worldwide.
What is the Internet?
Your computer, my computer, and their computer all come together to form the internet. Are you shocked? I am too. However, the Internet is defined as a collection of computers that interact globally over a network of servers and routers. The interaction is governed by a set of rules known as Internet protocols (IP).
The Internet Protocols (IP)
As we established earlier the Internet Protocols are sets of rules, but what do they rule against? Well, these sets of rules are responsible for directing (routing) and handling smaller bits of information/data (packets) to ensure that they can be shared across a network and get to the user who has requested this data.
Common internet protocols include:
- TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
- UDP/IP (User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol).
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
- HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
Just like the traffic rules govern how we behave on the road, the TCP/IP defines how data is exchanged between these interconnected computers. It facilitates end-to-end communication, splitting data into smaller bits (packets), routing and ensuring that the data requested gets to its intended destination.
The protocol could be split up into two parts to understand further its operation:
TCP — This is responsible for the splitting of data into packets (smaller bits), reassembling data correctly at its required destination, and facilitating the communication between systems across a network.
IP — This is responsible for the routing of requested data to ensure it gets to its intended destination.
TCP/IP is designed for reliability and not speed. Because it focuses on ensuring that data is delivered in the correct order, loading data can take longer if some packets(bits of data) are missing. it is preferred for secure, ordered, and reliable data transmission, as well as for delivering large amounts of data with minimal delay and mitigating network congestion.
UDP/IP (User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol)
You plan on getting to your friend’s birthday party and don’t care about how you get there? then UDP/IP is your guy. Just like TCP/IP, it is an internet protocol that governs the transmission of data across a network. However, UDP/IP focuses on getting data across fast and doesn’t focus on how reliable the data is which means reassembling data may not happen in the correct order.
Just in case you’re wondering what it is used for if it’s not reliable, UDP/IP is commonly used for real-time applications like streaming media and online gaming due to its lower overhead and faster transmission speeds.
Let’s divide and conquer for a better understanding:
UDP — The User Datagram Protocol is responsible for real-time services like playing games online, streaming on Twitch, watching Instagram live or even video calls etc. The UDP also helps to establish low latency (the ability to process a very high volume of data messages with minimal delay) and loss-tolerating connections over the network.
IP — (Since I’ve explained earlier, I’m just going to copy and paste so you get the gist). This is responsible for the routing of requested data to ensure it gets to its intended destination.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
As the genius that you are, I’m sure you already deduced what it does, Take a moment to applaud yourself for that. For the sake of people who are on my level and didn’t deduce anything, the File Transfer Protocol is a protocol that governs the transmission of files between interconnected computers using the TCP/IP protocol. A common use case is the transfer of files from your local computer to a remote host (usually a server…local computer -> an AWS EC2 server). A common software used is FileZilla.
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
This is a popular one as it appears in most of our URLs (Uniform Resource Locator. Example — http://example.com). It is responsible for the interaction between a web server and a web browser. It establishes a communication standard that governs the exchange of requests and responses between the end user’s browser and the web server. So whenever you go to any site, you send a request to the browser, and the request is then routed to the appropriate web server which returns a response.
Now that we understand the basic protocols, let’s breakdown some terminologies used so far.
Terminologies
- Packets: Small units of data sent over a network.
- Latency: Time delay between data being sent and received.
- Routing: Finding the best path for data to travel on a network.
- Server: A computer or software that provides services to other computers on a network.
CONCLUSION
These are the major concepts of the Internet, and with these few points of mine, I hope I’ve been able to simplify and not confuse you blah blah (I didn’t participate in many debates). Just in case you have a thirst for knowledge, you should check out the links below:
Until next time. 👋👋👋
