A Simple Introduction to Networking Basics

Welcome to my Networking Basics blog!👋 I’ve been diving into networks lately and wanted to share what I’ve learned (and what didn’t make me pull my hair out). It's been quite the adventure, from figuring out how we communicate in this world of the Internet to understanding IP addresses, routers, and all that techy jargon😜. If you’ve ever wondered why your internet is acting up or how networks work, this blog’s for you. I’ll share tips, tricks, and lessons I’ve learned — hopefully with a little humor!

I got some introductory notes like a preface of the book…

As we all know, the Network is everywhere, helping us with the way we learn, communicate, work, and much more. The Internet is now more than a term. It is not meant for sharing information, forming connections, and building our experiences; it is a part of our everyday lives. How simple yet fascinating it is to know that the Internet is a worldwide collection of interconnected networks made by cooperating to exchange information using common standards.

Like you’re connected to JIO or Airtel in India, AT&T or Verizon in the USA, Vodafone UK or Telefonica in the UK, Rogers wireless or Bell Mobility in Canada, NTT or KDDI in Japan, and many more different Telecom companies in various regions, YET we’re are just seamlessly connecting, Instagram, Video Calling, Snapchat, Teams, etc.

I MEAN THIS SEEMS FASCINATING RIGHT, but we haven’t considered it much. We even have connections like Wired(Telephone wires, Fiber-optic cables) and Wireless, or recently Satellite links(Starlink, if you know).

But sometimes you wonder, “Where does this internet come from?”.

Behold the First architecture of a network in the history of networking 🥳️. The U.S. Department of Defense with the goal of creating a decentralized communication system (👉 does not have a single operational point that can take down the entire system if it is destroyed) that can withstand potential Nuclear Attacks (I don’t know from who) and support scientific research (writing this line so that we can focus here 😜).

But why is this a Game-Changer that is referred to in most places whenever we start learning about Computer Networks, 🤔?

Now, someone thought, why send a big important package to the destination when you can send it in parts? Yes, this thinking is why computer networks exist, and that someone was Paul Baran🧑‍🦱 and Donald Davies👨‍🔬 (no need to remember names; nobody asks about it). The concept they thought of, which laid the groundwork in the history of networking, was the PACKET-SWITCHING NETWORK. 🥳️

They first connected 4 sites, UCLA, Stanford Research Institute (SRI), UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. Then, sent a message “LOGIN” but something went south and they only received “LO”. Now, they further evolved the technology and all but we are going to dive into the technical concepts now. I am not abruptly switching the topic but this is all there is to know (this is what I think) because nobody asks history but the technical concepts.

So I am going to learn further and will be back with other topics, but for now, I am going to have a coffee and beat the child who broke my window. HAVE FUN!