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I guess i explained everything through the title , ok here is the research , just tell me if i got anything wrong :-

The Internet : How your computer connects to websites

Have you ever thought of how your computer connects to other websites ?
You've always been in a hurry when you type "google.com" or "yahoo.com" when you are trying to find information fast , but have you ever sat down with yourself and thought "How is it possible that out of all these websites , when I type www.google.com , I directly go to the Google Search Engine ?" Well , the answer isnt simple , but ill break it down into simpler parts for you :

1. First thing you do : When you first type the website URL

2. What are IP addreses ? : How do they work

3. When you reach the site : What keeps you surfing the site

4. Quick Tips
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1. When you first type the website's URL

*What does URL stand for

*What are domains

1.1-
The first thing you should be aware of , is that URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator , in other words , it makes visiting websites much more easier , by having you to type domains instead of IP addresses , Ill talk more about IP addresses in the next topic . But now , lets focus on domain names.

1.2-
Domain names make your everyday internet life much easier . An example of a domain name would be "www.yahoo.com" , an example of a full URL would be "www.yahoo.com/home" while "www.yahoo.com/home" wont work , its still just an example . Domain names usually are named after the sites , just like www.google.com , once you type that in your URL bar , the first thing you see is Google's colourful logo . While other websites (which are pretty rare) have domain names that dont make sense with the website . Now you know more about domain names , lets move on to a more complex topic ..

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2. What are IP Addresses ?

*What are IP Adresses

*What are they made of

*Networking


2.1 What are IP Addresses

Your IP address (not your home address) is the most important thing you need/use on the internet , just like a passport can do lots of things for you in an airport . IP addresses are hard to memorise since they are made up of digits , thats why you type domain names to make it easier for you . An example of an ip address would be "78.567.234.554" , its pretty hard to remember , which is why you type www.yahoo.com to make things easier for you . Every computer online has an IP address that changes everyday , no two computer can ever have the same IP address .

2.2 What are they made of

IP addresses are made of 4 numbers that range from 0 to 255 , each number is written after a dot except for the first number . An IP address can be "65.456.456.43" but not "065.456.456.043" .

2.3 NETworking

*Whats Networking

*The Journey begins (what happens from the moment you think about entering the site)

The most complex issue in this research , is networking . Networking is the story of how a pc connects with a server , or how a pc connects with another pc . First thing you should know , is that one your computer is connected to the net , its is networking , as in NET-Working (your internet is working , you have a connection) , as I said before , your ip address is your passport to the net , remember that now . Ok , so you have your internet browser up and running , but your not satisfied with the results you get from your homepaged search engine Yahoo , so you try to visit Google instead .

So you type www.google.com . This is where the journey begins , after typing the URL (the domain name) , the domain name will transform itself into its original IP address form , as a result , your computer visits the IP address for google.com (say "345.0.656.43" ) . Now , if you connect to the site successfully , then here is what has ALEADY HAPPENED :

-The domain name you typed was transformed into the site's Static IP address .

-Your IP address is connected to the website's static IP address .

-As a result , your IP address gets stored in the Website's DataBase

-As you surf google.com without losing connection , keep in mind that its google's server that is keeping you connected to the site .

-Once you go to another website , the whole routine is repeated once again .

-If its closing the browser or just going to a different site , your IP address will be removed from the last site you visited's database to get the bandwidth you were using back (the server provides more space for the other clients still surfing google.com ,etc)

Ok , thats the end of my research , most of the information above and below (yup , there's more!) was from my general knowledge , Ive been using them too much , I had to know how they worked . Feel free to show off your computer knowledge after finishing !

QUICK TIPS

Static IP address :
Usually used for managing servers for websites or online games , Its a normal IP address , only it doesnt change everyday , allowing you to connect to the same area everyday , or else it would be a miracle to connect to www.yahoo.com everyday !

Servers :
Servers store everything for a website or an online game . For websites , a server stores all the information on the website , and the bandwidth* of the clients using it , and similar things , but in short, a server can be blamed if a site doesnt want to load , and it can be praised if a site loaded quickly

Database :
A Database is a server , only its specialized in IP-related tasks such as recording what certain ip addresses (computers connect to the net) have been visiting the site , and when did they leave the site ,etc

Bandwidth :
Bandwidth is some sort of internet energy , every site you visit has a limited/unlimited bandwidth , band width is the amount of space you are using while accessing a certain site on their servers , if you are trying to view a really big in size picture , it would also take a big amount of bandwidth from the servers , which is why sometimes you recieve messages from email providers such as Hotmail saying they are experiencing too much traffic (traffic is like when you imagine an ip address as a car you're driving , thats when too many (cars) are on a site (server) , so the staff members of the site watching the server , block any incoming ip addresses from accessing the site instead of shutting down the server , a server shutdown occurs when all the bandwidth is used by (greedy) ip addresses (clients) .

That's All Folks !


Well ??

I don't have time to read it all right now, but a couple of corrections:


Apart from the ones that have static IPs.


Actually a URL contains information on where to find the file.


You should reword this to say that IP addresses in written form comprise of 4 period-seperated bytes.

Also I see you refer to domain names as domains. This is incorrect as a domain is infact a network, whereas a domain name simply identifies the network.

Do some reading on DNS - domains don't just magically turn into ip addresses!

Apart from that , it does connect to the requested ip , but made easier for clients buy using the domain name ... right ?

I will sometime , but i dont mean it will magically transform itself , its just a way to make it easier ,i know lots of works is done before a pc can finally connect to an ip address ... right ?

Initially internet URLs are required to contain the domain name(to connect to the server holding the file), however after connection you specify only the relative path of the file.

SO can I present my research like this and be ok ? or are there somethings that must be changed / added ?

You're on the right track there mate, but a few points might help. Appologese for any rambling, but I'm killing time at the moments. :



Well no, as it breaks the 0 - 255 rule you defined below. I'd make that example valid if I were you, else someone might pick up on it.

The basic process of converting a URL to an IP address in simple terms is:
- The users comp sends the URL to a computer it knows (directly or indirectly) called a DNS server.
- This DNS server has a look up table and matches the URL with an IP address.
- The DNS sends this IP back to the users comp.
- The users comp can now connect to the website directly with its IP.

Just to clarrify bandwidth:

In engineering, it's the frequency range of a bit of wire (the higher, the more data you can pipe down it). A copper wire may have a bandwidth of 500hz-12mhz.

In networking, it's the speed of the connection. My LAN has a bandwidth of 100Mbps. My Internet connection has a bandwidth of 2Mbps

In webserver terminology, bandwidth is the amount of data a server can transfer over its connection in a given amount of time. So my webhost allows my server to transfer 40Gb/Month. 40 gigs of data per month. If I go over this bandwidth, they pull the plug on my server! Google probably has some stupid WebServer bandwidth of 1000Terrabytes/Month or something.

You're not interested in the first one (The engineering definition), but make sure you know which of the second two you're interested in.




I know you're keeping this simple, but I'll point this out just incase ...

There are two main things things that identify computers - MAC addresses, and IP addresses. A MAC address is unique to a network device (so your compo has a unique MAC address to any other computer in the world that has been or ever will be made). If you have two network cards, you have two MAC addresses.

IP addresses may seem unique, but they are not. An example would be a corporate LAN. The company may have an internet connection with the IP 123.123.123.123, but 100 PCs on its LAN wanting to connect to the internet. All those PCs are connected to the internet, and can chat with any other PC in the world, all via the same IP address. This is thanks to private internal IP addressing (i.e. inside a local network, you can have any IP addresses you want, so long as there is a router (with NAT) separating it from the Internet).

Ok, I'm sure that's far too complex for what you're after, but it's good to be aware of it seeing as you have an interest in Networking. Behind your (almost) unique IP addresses, is the (truly) unique MAC address. As far as the Internet is concerned though, IPs are the thing, and each device any one computer can connect to does have a unique IP. Ok, I'm confusing stuff here.


You've got the connecting to a website thing pretty close. Good job on that. Just to clarrify again, it goes like this:
- You type in your URL
- You pipe a message off the the DNS server.
- The DNS server gives you the IP
- Your compo sends off a page/connection request to the IP (the website)
- The website throws you back the page you requested and as you said, stored your info in a database-type system (normally called a session or server-side cookie). This session generally has a timeout (5 minutes, or 1 hour, or 1 day etc.) This session uniquely identifies your connection to the server.
- Next time you click a button on the website, your compo requests another page from the server.
- The server throws this page back to you, and resets the timeout time to it's maximum (so 5 minutes, or 1 hour, or 1 day etc.)
- When you navigate to another website, or close your browser, the website doesn't know you've done this. The website sits there with your session active, waiting for you to ask for another page, slowly counting down your timeout.
- When your timeout time reaches 0, the server deletes your session (so if you were logged in, you're logged out. If you had a shopping cart on a pay site, it's deleted etc.)
- Next time you come back to the site, you create a new session and off you go again.


Right, hope some of that was useful mate. I didn't want to go into too much detail and feel I might've done. Overall you're on the right track for your research project, so good job.