How the internet works: a message's journey
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What you will learn
By the end, you can explain how a message travels from one device to another across the internet, and why it is split into packets.
Fatou sends "Happy birthday!" to her cousin on another continent. It arrives in less than a second. It did not fly there in one piece: it was cut into small packets that raced along cables and through routers, then were put back together at the other end.
Read the explanation
The internet is a network of networks: millions of phones, laptops and servers joined by cables, Wi-Fi and routers. Every connected device has an address (an IP address), like a house on a street. A message is split into small packets; each carries the address it is going to, routers pass it along, and the packets are joined back together at the end.
- A network is devices joined together; the internet joins networks together.
- Packets can take different routes; they are put back in order at the end.
- Servers store websites and messages and send them to devices that ask.