Modern Computing and Internet

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Ok, before proceeding with this blog post, here is a question for you… How do you define modern computing? Let me guess your answers… You must have associated modern computing with: 1. brand new computing gadgets which are getting smaller (physically) day-by-day. 2. ultra fast processors being developed faster than you can pronounce the word… ”whatgheyhukildsthrchsdtbjhjebhr”(OK this was a joke) 3. or maybe those software solutions that can virtually do anything…from typing up your CV while you sit and dictate to take out your trash for you…Yes really!!! But do you really think modern computing is all these above? Maybe yes; but you forgot one very important category; The good old Internet! Yes, you can have a thousand dollar shiny brand new PC but unless you are exposed to internet technology, you are still living in the “stone age” of the computing era. Everything nowadays (literally speaking) is carried out by the medium of internet. Paying your bills? Doing a business transaction? Communicating to a friend? Or even buying groceries.. All these can be done more efficiently and quickly on the internet. Modern computing, therefore, is internet. Ok… before you start tossing and flipping in your chair (is that right?) and start asking as to what is the significance of my title in this post, let me ask you something. You are currently sitting in front of your monitor, staring at this post. Soon you will get hold of your mouse and keyboard, write a comment and click away at the submit button. Do you wonder how that information will reach me…or Wong for that matter? I can tell with a reasonable assurance that 50% of you would be never thinking about this process. Other 50% might be knowing, but some additional knowledge aint hurting. ;p When you send anything over the network or internet (or when you hit the submit button in the comment area), the message is broken down into packets.Packets are essentially blocks of messages that are conveyed over the network. All these communication are bound by some “rules” or protocols which are defined by TCP/IP. Every computer communicating on the internet has this facility. Before reaching the destination, these packets have to pass through various layers in order to reach the recipient for proper interpretation. TCP is responsible for breaking the message into packets.The TCP on the receiving computer converts the packets back to its original state. The IP is responsible for providing the proper address of the receiving machine, simply known as the IP address. So we can deduce that each packet transferred must contain the senders and recipients address in order to transfer successfully. There are other layers of models that a message has to pass through. These are Application, Host-to-Host Transport, Internetwork, and Network Interface. Please look up for their meaning as I do not want to make this post boring by including lengthy explanations of all these jargons. The above is just a general overview of how communication is handled over the internet. For the purpose of this post, I have kept the scope to a generality. Going more deeper would require hundreds of pages of writing, which I suppose will not be very popular with the readers of mylot. ;) Thanks for reading, and now its your turn to write (in the form of comments) and picture your message being transferred using the processes above.