Basic Diagram of the Internet

There are four basic components to the Internet:

• Your computer - your personal microcomputer at your home or office
• ISPs - Internet Service Providers, your gateway to the Internet. AOL is the best known ISP.
• Routers - special computers that sit at key points on the Internet and act like traffic cops at an intersection of hundreds of streets. The Router basically reads the destination address on the packets being sent by your computer and then forwards the packet to the appropriate destination. In some cases your data will travelthrough several routers before reaching its ultimate destination.
• Connections - the hardware that physically connects all this stuff together.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is used to move information across the Internet.

A very nice introduction to the Internet and how it physically works can be found at this link.

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