# How the internet works
The simple way to explain the internet; The internet is a load of computers which communicate with each other.

A very basic network


A complicated, large network


As you can see with this example, every computer is connected to another one. This is bad, cuz you would need 45 cables to connect only 10 laptops! So people made something called a router. Its called a router because it routes info from one computer to another! For example, if you wanted to send a video from computer A to computer H, you would send that to the router, and the router would send the info to computer H.
Yes, well instead of connecting to your router through cables, its usually connected through radio waves called wifi
Then what you can do is connect the routers together, so people on different networks can communicate.


You can keep doing this and connect loads of routers to each other. This, at the base level, is what the internet is.


### But wait! We're missing something. My computer isn't connect to any cables.
Yes, well instead of connecting to your router through cables, its usually connected through radio waves called <b>wifi</b>. Some people still use cables (now called ethernet), because it is faster.

## What is an ip address?
Like you have an address IRL, you have an internet address. Your internet address has 4 numbers seperated by dots. For example:

10.224.112.196

## Web servers
If you've ever been to a website, you've visited a web server.
A web server is a piece of software that runs on your computer that basically makes your computer into a website.

<b>Note: If you run a web server on your computer it can only been seen on the network you are on. </b>

You can access your web server by typing your ip address in a web browser

My web server