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Introduction

What?

  • Networking is like the postal system for computers, allowing them to send and receive data (letters) across a network (country/world).

Why?

  • Allows computers to talk to each other.

Networking

Real World Example (Simplified Web App)

Imagine you've created a simple web application, like a blog site where users can read and post articles. Here's how networking plays a crucial role in making this app accessible to users:

  • Server Hosting: Your web application lives on a server, which is just a computer optimized to respond to web requests. This server has an IP address, making it identifiable on the internet.
  • Domain Name: Instead of remembering the server's IP address, users type in a friendly domain name (e.g., "myawesomeblog.com") to access your site. DNS (Domain Name System) translates this domain into the server's IP address.
  • Data Exchange: When a user wants to post a comment on your blog, their computer sends data across the internet to your server. The server processes this data (e.g., saves the comment to a database) and sends back a confirmation.
  • Content Delivery: When someone visits your blog, their browser requests the webpage from your server. The server sends the necessary files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) back across the internet to the user's browser, which then renders the page for them to read and interact with.
  • Security: To protect user data, your web application uses HTTPS, a protocol that encrypts data sent between the user's browser and your server. This is like sending a letter in a locked, tamper-evident envelope instead of a postcard.

This example illustrates how networking enables the basic functionality of a web application, allowing users to access content and interact with it from anywhere in the world.