For
the purpose of this example let's say that you want to send a file
to a friend who lives on the opposite side of the country. You select
the file that you friend wants and you send it to him via email. Transmission Control Protocol / Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) prepares the data to
be sent and received. TCP/IP ensures that a Macintosh network can
exchange data with a Windows, or a Unix network, and vice-versa.
The file
that you are sending does not travel to your friends computer directly,
or even in a single continuous stream. The file you are sending
gets broken up into separate data packets. The Internet Protocol
side of TCP/IP labels each packet with the unique Internet address,
or IP address of your friends computer. Since these packets will
travel separate routes, some arriving sooner than others, the Transmission
Control Protocol side of TCP/IP assigns a sequence number to each
of packets. These sequence numbers will tell the TCP/IP in your
friends computer how to reassemble the packets once he receives
them. Amazingly, the complicated process of TCP/IP takes place in
a matter of milliseconds.
The packets
are then sent from one "router" to the next. Each router reads the
IP address of the packet and decides which path will be the fastest.
Since the traffic on these paths is constantly changing each packet
may be sent a different way.
It is
possible to discover the paths between routers using a utility known
as Traceroute. Using your favorite search engine, type in "traceroute"
to find different Web sites hosting it.
Also,
check out the Internet Traffic
Report to find out how much global Internet traffic there is
at this moment...and where the "bottlenecks" are. This information
may not useful to you...but it's interesting! The Internet Traffic
Report monitors the flow of data around the world. It then displays
a value between zero & 100. Higher values indicate faster &
more reliable connections.
