I'm going to write this article assuming that you know next to nothing about being on the internet - which is most definitely not true - and that you're smart enough to understand what's going on, which is almost certainly also true.
But maybe you've never really sat down with someone and had them explain things in overall terms, or maybe you're young and people just assume that you Know Stuff because all young people know how to use the internet... right? But using and understanding are two very different things.
And so I'm going to assume nothing here, and maybe you'll learn something regardless of your prior knowledge. At least I hope that's the case 😄
What is the internet anyway?
The internet is a huge collection of computers which are always turned on, and are connected to each other so they can send data to each other. The internet is the network infrastructure - the machines, the protocols (rules about how data is transfered and formatted), and the cables.
The internet was invented in the 1960s as an experiment by the US military, it was meant as a way to maintain communication links during a nuclear conflict. Hasn't been used for that yet, but it's been great for maintaining a steady supply of cat related content!
IP addresses
Each computer connected to the internet is assigned a unique address - an IP address - which is used to identify it. The device you're using right now has an IP address, and the computer where this text is saved - my home server - has an IP address.
IP addresses are numerical - e.g. 85.184.148.164 - which is difficult to remember for humans. So if a human is meant to access a computer and remember the address, you can buy a domain - like www.carstenboll.dk - and set up a Domain Name Server (DNS) to redirect people who try to access that domain in their browser to the numerical IP address of your computer.
Servers and clients
Some computers are set up to always be online and handle requests from devices such as your computer or phone. We call those machines servers, because they, uh, serve content to you, the client requesting service.
Some people (like me) have their own servers set up at home - other people rent server space, which is kind of like having a storage unit with stuff people can look at if you give them the address and maybe a key.
The World Wide Web
One of the ways you can share and access information on the internet is via the World Wide Web - most people simply call it the web or the internet. It was developed in the late 80s and early 90s when people started having access to personal computers (PCs) and wanted to use the internet to share knowledge and build communities.
When you're using the WWW, you use a protocol - HTTP - to ask for (request) data from a server, which then sends it back to you (response). The text which is returned is typically surrounded by HTML - hyper text markup language:
<h1>This is a header</h1>
<h2>This is a smaller header</h2>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>Basic HTML-formatted text
The HTML-tags function as an instruction to a specific type of program on your computer about how itshould display it on screen. The program interpreting the text is called a browser.
Browsers
A browser is an application which is used to request, receive, and display files stored on servers. You're using a browser to read this - and chances are, it's either Google Chrome, Safari, Edge, or Firefox. The first three are developed and supported by major tech companies (boo), whereas Firefox is open source and developed by the Mozilla Foundation (less boo). Many spin-offs also exist, e.g. the Zen browser. You can freely switch browsers, also on your phone or tablet.
Browsers typically have a similar design - there's a bar where you can create new tabs...
Creating and switching between tabs in Firefox
...and there's an address bar where you type in the URL to the website you want to visit...
When you type the address to a particular webpage into their address bar - e.g. www.carstenboll.dk - and hit enter, the browser submits a request to the DNS server where the domain is registered, which then points the request to the IP address of the server, where a piece of software simply called a web server sends the requested content back to the browser which shows it to you.
It' all very simple, really 😉
Adblockers & other extensions
Which browser you want to use is up to you - but I recommend that you use a browser which allows you to use adblocker extensions - little pieces of software which are developed to remove advertisements from the websites you visit.
Me adding uBlock Origins to my firefox browser
This is, to a certain degree, a political issue. Much of the internet is paid for by ads - but they objectively make your online experience worse with their visual pollution, they have been known to trick people into fraudulent schemes, and are generally just a huge pain in the arse. I don't know any tech people who don't use an adblocker, and you should strongly consider it too.
I recommend you use uBlock Origin. At the time I am writing this, it is available for all major browsers, but Google have stated their intention to remove support for adblocker extensions. So consider using a different browser than Chrome - I currently use Firefox.
Other useful extensions are:
- I Still Don't Care About Cookies - makes sure you don't see cookie banners
Search Engines
While it's great that you can type URLs - addresses for websites - into the address bar of a browser and request that site, you need to know what the address is. Often you don't - and sometimes you don't even know where to start looking.
That's why search engines were invented. In the beginning, search engines were simply curated lists of links to cool websites...
...but as the internet grew and evolved, some Smart People invented ways to create huge but easily searchable databases with links to websites, continually updated by automated scripts known as web crawlers or spiderbots.
Long story short, Google became the dominant search engine - mainly because it was excellent - and they now occupy more than 90% of the search engine market. They make their money chiefly from showing you adverts (unless you use an adblocker) - so-called sponsored links - and selling advertisements to marketeers all over the world. You may or may not be happy with them knowing so much about you, but that's largely a personal choice.
Search engines are usually integrated into your browser, so when you type something into the address bar which isn't a valid address you'll be shown a search result instead.
Me searching for 'streaming'
As you can see, I currently use a different search engine - Ecosia - and there are plenty of search engines to choose from:
To make one of them your search engine instead of whatever is preselected in your browser - probably Google - you need to open the settings for your browser and change the search engine to something else.
Where precisely it's located depends on the browser - to figure it out try searching for something like "How to change your default search engine in firefox", but substitute firefox for the name of your browser.
What now?
Now you know the basics of how the internet works, how to use a browser, and how to find new content.