Packets, routers and IP addresses

2.  The internet is a network of computers that
enables them to send data to one another. It
happens globally and the data can be transferred
from one another in seconds.
 The internet is now most commonly used for:
email, messaging, social media and browsing.
 It was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee and
is now becoming more popular to use it on other
devices than computers, such as mobile phones.
 There are now billions of people who use the
internet and it is an industry that is growing
everyday.

3.  Domain names and IP addresses are alike in
many ways, because they lead you to the same
place on the internet.
 A domain name is the name of a website and is
what you will search for in your web browser, to
lead you to a certain web address.
 An IP address is the actual name of that web
address and consists of a series of numbers.
 Although they are both very similar, people
prefer to use domain names, as it is easier to
remember the name of a website if it is in words
than numbers.

4.  A data packet is something that includes information
and is sent from one computer to another.
 The packets can sometimes contain data about an
image or videos and this information can be sent
across the world. This data allows you to access what
the data is about, e.g. image, text, videos etc.
 As some of the data can be so big, it can be sent in
multiple packets. Once the packets have been
received by the computer, the data is put back
together and received in its original form. This whole
process usually takes less than a second.
 Packet switching is where information is transferred
from one computer to another and what the whole
process of data packets being transferred is called.

5.  The function of routers is to decide where to
send information from various computers.
 Routers send messages to the computer that is
using it, to allow them to access the internet. It
does this by following thousands of pathways to
send messages to the computer.
 A router makes sure that the information goes to
the right destination and by the router doing
this, it makes sure that no information is lost or
has gone to the wrong computer.

6.  http://www.cyberindian.com/domain-registration/
article.php?article_id=72
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/what
-is-the-internet
 http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet
/basics/internet-infrastructure3.htm
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3tbgk7