Jedi_Outcast
Really Really Experienced
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2002
- Posts
- 419
The techie type talk about IP addresses, DNS servers and other techno-crap, It all comes down to finding machines to talk to on the internet.
an Internet Protocol (IP) address is written 123.456.789.123
It is your computer's social security number, and just like yours it is given to you by a higher authority, in your computer's case your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Just like the government uses your SSN to keep track of/talk to you, the ISP uses your IP to keep track of/talk to your computer.
Unlike your SSN the IP of your computer will change, if you are on a Dial-up connection, it changes every time you connect to the internet. If you are on a Cable or DSL, it may change every time you turn on your computer, or it may only change every 30-60 days. The longer you have the same IP the easier it is to find you on the internet.
If you open your web browser and type http://66.218.71.84/
it takes you to YAHOO!. you just talked to another computer by IP address. sucks don't it?
Who can remember 66.218.71.84? it's like walking up to me and saying "hi, 312-44-6685" It's much easier to say "hi, jedi". That is where Domain Name Servers (DNS) comes in. all DNS is is a huge table of IP addresses and names. Open your web browser again and type "www.yahoo.com". your computer went to another computer and said "what is the IP address for www.yahoo.com. that computer said 66.218.71.84. Then your computer went out to 66.218.71.84 and got a web page. all in the space of a second or two.
computers have various ways of talking to each other.
HTTP - web pages
PING - lets you know if a computer is there. Try it: open a DOS prompt and type PING 66.218.71.84, you should get 4 responses with how long it takes to your PING to return, kinda like the submarine sonar on those old movies.
NNTP - Newsgroups, the alt.binaries.erotica stuff
POP3 - How you get e-mail.
and hundreds of other ways. Every type of program on the internet has a way to talk to others. With all this chatting going on, a lot of your stuff is getting out on the internet without you knowing about it.
This is a little more techie than I'd like to get into, but the more you know about the stuff going out, the better the descision you can make on what SHOULD be going out.
Next time: Internet 201 - what your ISP knows about you.
an Internet Protocol (IP) address is written 123.456.789.123
It is your computer's social security number, and just like yours it is given to you by a higher authority, in your computer's case your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Just like the government uses your SSN to keep track of/talk to you, the ISP uses your IP to keep track of/talk to your computer.
Unlike your SSN the IP of your computer will change, if you are on a Dial-up connection, it changes every time you connect to the internet. If you are on a Cable or DSL, it may change every time you turn on your computer, or it may only change every 30-60 days. The longer you have the same IP the easier it is to find you on the internet.
If you open your web browser and type http://66.218.71.84/
it takes you to YAHOO!. you just talked to another computer by IP address. sucks don't it?
Who can remember 66.218.71.84? it's like walking up to me and saying "hi, 312-44-6685" It's much easier to say "hi, jedi". That is where Domain Name Servers (DNS) comes in. all DNS is is a huge table of IP addresses and names. Open your web browser again and type "www.yahoo.com". your computer went to another computer and said "what is the IP address for www.yahoo.com. that computer said 66.218.71.84. Then your computer went out to 66.218.71.84 and got a web page. all in the space of a second or two.
computers have various ways of talking to each other.
HTTP - web pages
PING - lets you know if a computer is there. Try it: open a DOS prompt and type PING 66.218.71.84, you should get 4 responses with how long it takes to your PING to return, kinda like the submarine sonar on those old movies.
NNTP - Newsgroups, the alt.binaries.erotica stuff
POP3 - How you get e-mail.
and hundreds of other ways. Every type of program on the internet has a way to talk to others. With all this chatting going on, a lot of your stuff is getting out on the internet without you knowing about it.
This is a little more techie than I'd like to get into, but the more you know about the stuff going out, the better the descision you can make on what SHOULD be going out.
Next time: Internet 201 - what your ISP knows about you.
