Module 2 – Lesson 2:

How the Internet Works

We need to know how computers communicate with the larger
world for two reasons
1. knowing the process and pieces involved in the communication
enables you to troubleshoot effectively when that communication
goes away

2. to be able to communicate knowledgeably with a network

technician who comes in to solve a more complex issue.
Internet Tiers
The Internet is broken down into groups called tiers
Tier 1, consists of a small number of companies called Tier 1 providers
• They own long-distance, high-speed fiber optic networks called backbones
• The backbones span the major cities of the earth and interconnect at
special locations called network access points (NAPs)
Tier 2 providers own smaller, regional networks and must pay the Tier 1
providers
• Most of the famous companies that provide Internet access to the general
public are Tier 2 providers.
• Tier 3 providers are even more regional and connect to Tier 2 providers.
The piece of equipment that makes this tiered Internet concept
work is called a backbone router. Backbone routers connect to
more than one other backbone router, creating a big,
interwoven framework for communication.
TCP/IP: The Common
Language of the Internet
• TCP/IP provides the basic software structure for communication on the Internet
• TCP/IP provides the addressing scheme for computers that communicate on
the Internet through IPv4 addresses
• TCP/IP provides the framework and common language for the Internet. And it
offers a phenomenally wide-open structure for creative purposes
• Programmers can write applications built to take advantage of the TCP/IP
structure and features, creating what are called TCP/IP services
Internet Service Providers
• Every Tier 1 and Tier 2 provider leases connections to the Internet to companies
called Internet service providers (ISPs)
• ISPs essentially sit along the edges of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Internet
• I S P s e ss e ntially s it along the edge s o f the T ie r 1 and T ier 2 Inte rnet
Connection Concepts
Connecting to an ISP requires two things to work perfectly
1. hardware for connectivity, such as a modem and a working cable line
2. software, such as protocols to govern the connections and the data flow (all configured in
the OS) and applications to take advantage of the various TCP/IP services
 Computers commonly connect
to an ISP by using one of eight
technologies that fit into four
categories
1. Dial-up (analog and ISDN)
2. Dedicated (DSL, cable, and fiber)
3. Wireless (Wi-Fi and cellular)
4. Satellite
• Analog dial-up is the slowest of the bunch and requires a telephone line and a special networking
device called a modem. ISDN uses digital dial-up and has much greater speed.
• Dedicated connections (DSL, cable, and fiber) most often use a box that connects to a regular
Ethernet NIC
• Satellite may use either a modem or a NIC, depending on the particular configuration you have,
although most folks will use a NIC
Dial-Up
A dial-up connection to the Internet requires two pieces to work:
hardware to dial the ISP, such as a modem or ISDN terminal adapter; and
software to govern the connection, such as Microsoft’s Dial-up
Networking (DUN).
Network Hardware
Modem
• equipment that turn digital data into an analog signal to send it over
the telephone line, and then turn it back into digital data when it
reached the other end of the connection. In short, modem enable
computers to talk to each other via standard commercial telephone
lines by converting analog signals to digital signals, and vice versa
Network Hardware
Modem
• The term modem is short for modulator/demodulator, a description of
transforming the signals
1. Phone lines have a speed based on a unit called a baud, which is one cycle
per second
2. The fastest rate a phone line can achieve is 2400 baud

Modems can pack multiple bits of data into each baud; a 33.6 kilobits
per second (Kbps) modem, for example, packs 14 bits into every
baud: 2400 × 14 = 33.6 Kbps
Network Hardware
Modem
• It connect to telephone cables with a four-wire connector and port.
Telephone cable is CAT 1; the connectors and ports are RJ-11.

Modem Connections Internal modems connect to the

computer very differently from how external modems
connect. Almost all internal modems connect to a PCI or
PCI Express (PCIe) expansion bus slot inside the
computer.
Network Hardware

Contemporary external modems connect to the

computer through an available USB port USB
offers simple plug and play and easy portability
between machines, plus such modems require no
external electrical source, getting all the power
they need from the USB connection.
Dial-up Networking
The software side of dial-up networks requires configuration within the
OS to include information
provided by your ISP
The ISP provides a dial-up telephone number or numbers, as well as
your user name and initial password
the ISP will tell you about any special configuration options you need to
specify in the software setup
Dial-up Networking

Configuring Dial-Up To start

configuring a dial-up connection
open the Network and Sharing Center
applet and click Set up a new connection or
network
Dial-up Networking
Configuring Dial-Up To start
configuring a dial-up connection

Select Connect to the Internet and enter

your dial-up information
PPP Dial-up
links to the Internet have their own special hardware protocol called
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)
PPP is a streaming protocol developed especially for dial-up Internet
access
INTEGRATED SERVICES
DIGITAL NETWORK (ISDN)
the process of sending telephone transmission across fully digital lines
end- to-end
service consists of two types of channels
Bearer (B) channels - carry data and voice information at 64 Kbps
Delta (D) channels - carry setup and configuration information and data at 16 Kbps

two B/one D - usually called a basic rate interface (BRI) setup

INTEGRATED SERVICES
DIGITAL NETWORK (ISDN)
A BRI setup uses only one physical line, but each B channel sends 64
Kbps, doubling the throughput total to 128 Kbps
ISDN also connects much faster than modems, eliminating that long,
annoying mating call you get with phone modems
The big limitation is that you usually need to be within about 18,000 feet of a central office
to use ISDN
INTEGRATED SERVICES
DIGITAL NETWORK (ISDN)
Another type of ISDN, called a primary rate interface (PRI)
composed of twenty-three 64-Kbps B channels and one 64-Kbps D channel, giving it a
total throughput of 1.544 megabits persecond (Mbps). PRI ISDN lines are also known
as T1 lines.
INTEGRATED SERVICES
DIGITAL NETWORK (ISDN)
physical connections for ISDN is some what the same with analog
modem
An ISDN wall socket usually looks something like
a standard RJ-45 network jack

The most common interface

for your computer is a device called a terminal
adapter (TA)
Digital subscriber line (DSL)
use a standard telephone line with special equipment on each end to
create always-on Internet connections at speeds much greater
than dial-up
Service levels for DSL can vary widely. Speeds
are generally in the single digits—less than 1
Mbps upload and around 3 Mbps download.
xDSL technologies can offer competitive broadband speeds
measured in tens or hundreds of megabits per second
 Digital subscriber line (DSL) - Setup
A tech comes to the house to DSL Connection Diagram
install the DSL receiver, often
called a DSL modem, and
possibly hook up a wireless
router

DSL microfilters remove the high-

pitch screech of the DSL signal,
enabling phones and fax
machines to operate correctly

The tech (or the user, if knowledgeable) then configures

the DSL modem and router (if there is one) with the settings provided by the ISP
Digital subscriber line (DSL)
Common Forms of DSL
ADSL lines differ between slow upload speed (such as 384 Kbps, 768 Kbps, and 1
Mbps) and faster download speed (usually 3–15 Mbps)
SDSL has the same upload and download speeds, but telecom companies charge a
lot more for the privilege
Cable
Cable offers a different approach to high-speed Internet access,
using regular cable TV cables to serve up lightning-fast speeds

Offers faster service than most DSL connections, with

upload speeds from 5 to 35+ Mbps and download speeds ranging
anywhere from 15 to 1000+ Mbps
Cable
Cable Internet connections
start with an RG-6 or RG-59
cable coming into your house

The cable connects to a cable

modem that then connects to a
small home router or your
network interface card (NIC) via
Ethernet
Fiber
To compete with Cable companies, DSL providers created 2 services
fiber-to-the-node (FTTN)
In FTTN, the fiber connection runs from the provider to a box somewhere in your
neighborhood. This box connects to your home or office using normal coaxial or Ethernet
cabling

fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP)
FTTP runs from the provider straight to a home or office, using fiber the whole way. Once
inside the home or office, you can use any standard cabling (or wireless) to connect
your computers to the Internet
Wi-fi or 802.11 wireless
Wireless access points (WAPs) designed to serve the public abound in coffee shops,
airports, fast-food chains, and bars
Do remember that most open hotspots do not provide any level of
encryption, meaning it’s easy for a bad guy to monitor your connection
and read everything you send or receive.
Secure your public hotspot Web browsing using HTTPS-secured sites
Instead of typing www.facebook.com, for example, type in
https://www.facebook.com or use a browser extension like the
Electronic Frontier Foundation’s HTTPS Everywhere.
Line-of-Sight Wireless
by using high-powered, directional antennas and Ethernet bridge devices you can extend
the range of a wi-fi up to 8 miles
To support higher bandwidths over these ranges, connections move up the
radio spectrum
Wi-Fi operates at 2.4 or 5.0 GHz but line-of-sight devices could use another
band, such as 24-GHz.
Cellular
the cellular industry developed a string of marketing terms using the idea of
generations: first-generation devices are called 1G, second-generation are 2G, followed
by 3G, 4G, and 5G
Cellular
The first generation (1G) of cell phone data services was analog and not at all designed
to carry packetized data
It wasn’t until the early 1990s that two fully digital technologies called the Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) and code division multiple access (CDMA) came into wide acceptance
GSM evolved into GPRS and EDGE
GPRS and EDGE were 2.5G technologies

CDMA introduced EVDO

EV-DO was true 3G technology
Cellular
Standards, with names like UTMS, HSPA+, and HSDPA, have brought GSM-based networks
into the world of 3G and 3.5G
These mobile data services provide modest real-world download speeds of a few (generally under
10) Mbps

The 4G technology
Devices and networks using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology rolled out worldwide in the early
2010s and now dominate wireless services
LTE networks feature theoretical speeds of up to 1 Gbps download and 100 Mbps upload LTE has
become synonymous with 4G

The 5G—saw a big development push in 2018, followed by a rollout in 2019 and 2020. The
IMT-2020 specifications call for speeds up to 20 Gbps.
Satellite
Satellite connections to the Internet get the data beamed to a satellite dish on your
house or office; a receiver handles the flow of data, eventually sending it through an
Ethernet cable to the NIC in your computer
You need to make sure the satellite dish points toward the satellites (generally toward
the south if you live in the northern hemisphere)
Satellite starts with a dish, professionally installed with line-of-sight to the satellite
A coax cable runs from the dish to your satellite modem
he satellite modem has an RJ-45 connection, which you may then connect directly to your computer
or to a router
Common Speed of a Satellite Internet is 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.
End of presentation