One click on a link, and the first thing to leave the machine is not the page request but a question for DNS: which IP does this domain name map to? Only then is the data cut into small packets, each free to cross a different chain of routers and to arrive out of order, with the receiver reassembling them from the sequence numbers in the headers. TCP shakes hands in three steps, SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK, then acknowledges every packet and resends any that goes unacknowledged. HTTPS locks the payload, so routers along the way merely forward an unreadable block.
Click a link and your machine cuts the data into packets carrying the destination IP address, pushed through dozens of routers to the server; the server returns the response the reverse way. TCP/IP reassembles packets correctly & resends lost ones.
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Pick a ‘Scenario’ (load page · DNS lookup · packetize · TCP handshake · congestion · HTTPS) · click a concept (packet/IP/router/DNS/TCP…) for details
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About How the Internet Works
One click on a link, and the first thing to leave the machine is not the page request but a question for DNS: which IP does this domain name map to? Only then is the data cut into small packets, each free to cross a different chain of routers and to arrive out of order, with the receiver reassembling them from the sequence numbers in the headers. TCP shakes hands in three steps, SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK, then acknowledges every packet and resends any that goes unacknowledged. HTTPS locks the payload, so routers along the way merely forward an unreadable block.