How Do Computers Talk to Each Other Over the Internet?

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Basic Internet: How Do Computers Talk to Each Other Over the Internet?

How Do Computers Talk to Each Other Over the Internet?

Remember (or remember hearing about) when computers were as big as a room? Well back then there was no way two could talk to each other. But as early as the 1960s people were working on how to connect or “network” two computers together to be able to share information.

As back then there was no such thing as a small personal computers, those huge computers in large universities put things on the complicated side. Through some brilliance and lots of hard work, UCLA was first online in 1969 and they talked to Stanford.

Needless to say, a lot had to be figured out in order to do this, including inventing a way for computers to "talk" to each other, making this “protocol” from nothing.

There are many details which are technical and not something that the everyday user needs to know. Like, how they worked out that information is actually sent between the computers in small packets that are assembled by the receiving computer, making it possible to send large items across the small and slow network lines.

However, how many of you have seen “http” at the beginning of a website address?

“http” stands for stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. In other words, the name of the protocol we use to ask the computer to find a website somewhere in the world on tens of thousands of possible computers. The term "hypertext" refers to the text on a page which you can click on, the word “hyper-” originates from the regular word meaning over, above or beyond.

There are many different things you can do using the connected computers on the Internet or World Wide Web.

For example, email uses its own protocol in order to communicate across the network. Part of this protocol is the use of the @ symbol. They wanted a little used symbol to be able to create a way to message an individual on those computers. So one side of the @ would be the individual and the other side would be the computer that individual accesses to get their communication.

If you can think of another protocol you can email me the name and I will expain it: andromeda@edisongroup.net

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