Routers: The Silent Killer

Ok, so last time we talked, I was explaining that the Internet is not controlled by gremlins or dark magics or anything of that sort. I did mention routers, and that they're very important. Well, they still are, nothing's changed since Saturday. Routers, by definition, route traffic.


You're probably going, "Well, dur" right now and hitting the back button on your browser. Well, hang on a second. There's more to it than that. For an example, we have a router here. This is Router 66. For the moment, let's pretend that there is only one router in the entire internet, and this is the one. Now, the real Route 66 connects Chicago and Los Angeles, so I need to find a way to represent both cities. Well, Chicago is known for the Cubs and deep dish pizza. I don't like the Cubs, so we'll represent Chicago with a pizza, like so:

Mm, that looks good. Ok, now we have to represent California. That's easy. California is known for its governor and, well, boobs. So I've tastefully made this image to represent the great state of California:

Wow, that's disturbing. I may have nightmares for a while based on that one. Ok, now that we've got the preliminaries done, Router 66 connects Chicago and LA together. However, these aren't the only two places in the network. It doesn't matter what these other networks are, so we're going to represent them as a small duck and a piece of aged cheddar cheese. Why did I do that? Well, why not? In any case, now we have a basis for our network. The following image is a picture of what our network looks like:



Ok! Now, let's say that Chicago is sending a message to LA. With all these networks, the job of the router is to send the packet (the data, the message, whatever) to the correct place. If the router sent the message from Chicago to the duck, that wouldn't be very helpful, would it?

Thus, the router determines the correct place to send that message, and thus LA gets the message and can send back replies. This is just a very basic network, though. There can be multiple routers, some connected in loops. In a situation like this, there needs to be a way to determine the best path to get to somewhere. That, however, is for next time, when I'm going to talk about routing protocols.

Until next time, I'll be here, trying to get the image of Arnold with boobs out of my head.

The Internet: A Primer

Most people don't put a lot of thought into what exactly the internet is. It is, after all, a series of tubes, and that's all we need to know. But what exactly is happening behind the scenes when you visit a webpage? This is a bit fuzzier. Most people don't think about it, and that's fine. However, if they had to draw a map of what happens beyond their computer, it would most likely look something like this:



Click the picture to see it in its full glory.

Somehow, when a computer is plugged into an outlet or modem, beams are sent though time and space, propelled by gremlins or something extremely sci-fi, to end up at the Internet Building. In it are lots of little tubes, like so:



This tube in particular has that Dramatic Chipmunk video on Youtube, but it could easily be anything. Amazon, Google, even this blog! Nobody knows where the Internet Building is (Probably somewhere in the Pentagon), but it's the reason we can stay connected.

That's the general idea that most people have, and while it isn't true, it's at least plausible. Hell, it'd probably be simpler to have just a huge Internet Building somewhere. I'd offer to administrate it. In reality, the Internet isn't in a central location. It's just a bunch of servers, workstations, and personal computers linked together, with no regard for location. When you view a web page, a request is sent out to some server in Bumfuck, Wherever, and a reply is sent back, containing the requested information. It's that simple.

Of course, you may be wondering, "That's all fine and good, Oh Mighty Bringer of Knowlege, but how do you connect to that server?" and while I appreciate the title, it's a bit long, so please just call me "Your Awesomeness." Well, that's slightly more complicated, and it has to do with this little guy:

This is a router, which is probably one of the more important pieces of equipment in networking. More on that later, though. Suffice to say, this little guy's important.

Now you know the basics of the Internet. Until next time, I'll be here, defending the Internet Tubes from those vicious LAN Dragons.