Author:![]() | Internet 4 U |
Now would be a good time to read the section on Internet History if you have not already done so.
As you will have seen there, I mentioned a lot of small packages that run around in Internet looking for the computer that they are trying to go to. Those packages use TCP/IP to get where they want to go.
All of us on Internet are not Techies, i.e. technical experts. That is one of my reasons for wanting to explain TCP/IP as down-to-earth as I can, my other reason being that I am not a techie. History teachers seldom are.
TCP/IP is a small collection of program code that lives inside of your computer. If you are running Windows NT Workstation you will have TCP/IP built into the operative system itself.
TCP/IP gets a helping hand from a little box called a router. If you are old enough to remember Bob Dylans song about Route 66, then you know that a route is a road.
A router keeps track of road-systems inside Internet. It knows which roads are open in various directions from where you are now (i.e. where the box is).