How the Internet Works

Overview

This activity is an interactive demonstration of what happens when you type a URL into a browser.

In this activity the students will be guided to act out the various parts of the internet: websites, routers, name servers, ISPs and home computers. In this activity, students will:

• Learn the difference between a switching (phone system) and routing (internet) network
• See how packets are routed through the internet
• See how the internet routes around damage
• See how domain name servers are used to lookup an IP address

It is designed for 8-13 students, but fewer or more can be accommodated if needed.

Description

This activity is described in the following blog posts:

• How the Internet Works - Part I - Overview
• How the Internet Works - Part II - Phone System
• How the Internet Works - Part III - Internet Routing
• How the Internet Works - Part IV - DNS

Documents

Credits

This activity and all the documents were created by Gary Kacmarcik.

These documents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License