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How the Internet Works

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TCP/IP

3:04 with Joy Kesten

Sending and receiving of data on the Internet is made possible by two protocols: TCP and IP. TCP, is the Transmission Control Protocol; it splits data up into packets and puts them back together at their destination. IP, the Internet Protocol, tells the packets where to go and where they should return to.

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    The internet makes it possible for one computer in one place to talk to 0:00
    another computer in a completely different place, but it hasn't always been this way. 0:04
    in the mid 1970's and early 1980's, the set 0:09
    of protocols that enables computers to talk to each other was being developed. 0:12
    The sending and receiving of data on the internet 0:17
    was made possible by two protocols, TCP and IP. 0:20
    TCP is the transmission control protocol and it splits data up into packets and 0:24
    puts them back together again at their destination. 0:30
    IP, the internet protocol, tells the packets where to go and 0:33
    to where they should return. 0:37
    Let's see what this looks like. 0:39
    The things you get from the internet, like an HTML page or a YouTube video, and 0:41
    the things you send over the internet, like an e-mail to a friend, are all data. 0:46
    In order for data to be sent over the internet, 0:51
    it needs to be broken into packets. 0:53
    A packet isn't an entire web page, or even usually a whole e-mail. 0:56
    It's a small chunk of data, like a puzzle piece of the whole picture. 1:00
    By breaking data into these small, 1:04
    manageable chunks, many users can transmit data at the same time very quickly. 1:06
    In essence, these packets are a way of sharing access to the network, so 1:12
    that no single transmission dominates the pipeline. 1:16
    The TCP/IP Protocol Suite is responsible for creating packets, making sure they get 1:20
    where they need to go, and putting them back together again at their destination. 1:26
    If something gets lost along the way, TCP will request the packets to be resent. 1:31
    The directions on how to accomplish this are written in a header and 1:37
    wraps every TCP packet. 1:41
    Once TCP makes a packet and wraps it with header, the packet is handed off 1:44
    to the next layer which will handle the details of how to transmit the data. 1:49
    Now every computer on the internet can be identified by its own unique number called 1:54
    an IP address, and the IP protocol uses IP addresses to route the TCP packets. 1:59
    In order to transmit the data to the correct location, the IP protocol 2:07
    also adds a small header of information to the packet, just like TCP. 2:11
    The IP header contains information on how to send the packets, 2:15
    such as the source IP address and the destination IP address. 2:21
    Now, because packets often travel through a number of routers on their way to their 2:25
    final destination, to make this process really fast, 2:29
    each packet is designed to work independently. 2:33
    This means that each packet can travel from router to router in 2:37
    the fastest way possible to reach its destination. 2:40
    When all the packets are received, 2:44
    TCP will reassemble them, making sure they're all there and in the right order. 2:46
    Now that we understand a little bit more about how the TCP/IP Protocols get 2:51
    data from one place to another, let's find out about the other pieces of hardware and 2:55
    software used to bridge the distance between computers. 3:00

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