Where does the internet come from?

Short answer:
The Internet comes from everyone that registers a Domain name, and becomes an accessible server. All the servers connected together form a web, of which is accessible by anyone through ISP purchases.​
 
Ok, perhaps my question was too vague. We all know electricity comes from water going thru a generator like at Grand Coulee Dam so when one downloads a software program,its a bunch of 1's & 0's, correct? If I'm not wrong, those 1's & o's originate from ???
I guess maybe I should just read several of the links from my google search :) Thank you thou, still learnin'. :)
 
Ok, perhaps my question was too vague.

The internet is a mesh of servers. There isn't one gigantic centralized server that has everythign available to it. Instead there are millions of individual servers all out there that can serve up information when it is requested.

The closest thing to being centralized is what is called the Root Name Servers. These are 7 servers centralized that have the addresses and directions for every publicly accessible server in the world. As an analogy think of these as a gigantic phone book.

Everything else is a bunch of individual servers setup to serve specific purposes. So lets follow through a simple process like you trying to load technet. This is a fictionalized version for demonstration purposes only.

You turn on your computer and it talks to your home modem/router and gets an IP Address. You load a browser up and ask it to load techspot.com

Your router/modem says "hmm, I don't know where Techspot.com is, let me ask our ISP if they know". Your ISP checks their own DNS Servers and it can't find Techspot.com, so it says to it's own routers/servers/etc "hey, anyone know where Techspot.com is?" and this continues over and over until finally someone says "oh, yes I know, Techspot.com is at 50.22.252.218".

Now the inverse happens and all these machines tell each other the address until it reaches all the way back to your computer's browser who then loads up the address. Once this occurs, you establish a connection through a serious of routers until it hits the server. Techspot's server says "Hey dude! here's the website!" and sends it back.

Viola, you now have "the internet" displayed on your screen. In a very simplified nutshell this is how it works. There isn't one centralized repository instead there's millions of servers that all run around asking each other where things are until they find it and display it to you. This may seem excessive but it creates a very flexible and reliable setup where it's very hard to "lose" part of the internet.

The amazing part, all of this traversing happens in a matter of milliseconds.
 
The internet is a mesh of servers. There isn't one gigantic centralized server that has everythign available to it. Instead there are millions of individual servers all out there that can serve up information when it is requested.

The closest thing to being centralized is what is called the Root Name Servers. These are 7 servers centralized that have the addresses and directions for every publicly accessible server in the world. As an analogy think of these as a gigantic phone book.

Everything else is a bunch of individual servers setup to serve specific purposes. So lets follow through a simple process like you trying to load technet. This is a fictionalized version for demonstration purposes only.

You turn on your computer and it talks to your home modem/router and gets an IP Address. You load a browser up and ask it to load techspot.com

Your router/modem says "hmm, I don't know where Techspot.com is, let me ask our ISP if they know". Your ISP checks their own DNS Servers and it can't find Techspot.com, so it says to it's own routers/servers/etc "hey, anyone know where Techspot.com is?" and this continues over and over until finally someone says "oh, yes I know, Techspot.com is at 50.22.252.218".

Now the inverse happens and all these machines tell each other the address until it reaches all the way back to your computer's browser who then loads up the address. Once this occurs, you establish a connection through a serious of routers until it hits the server. Techspot's server says "Hey dude! here's the website!" and sends it back.

Viola, you now have "the internet" displayed on your screen. In a very simplified nutshell this is how it works. There isn't one centralized repository instead there's millions of servers that all run around asking each other where things are until they find it and display it to you. This may seem excessive but it creates a very flexible and reliable setup where it's very hard to "lose" part of the internet.

The amazing part, all of this traversing happens in a matter of milliseconds.
Ok, let me re word my question. Everybody has a connection to their computer/device allowing them access to the internet. INSIDE that connection is usually a copper wire that has carries I guess you'd say lotsa 10101110000100111100010 , that should of been how I worded it but I didn't. I hope this clears it up. :) Where do the 1's & 0's come from?
 
Not sure but I think you are asking about codes , HTLM or Java. These are written by programers.
 
Are you asking how the binary bits are produced by the PC or are you asking where the binary bits are stored on the Internet?
 
I'll try to explain this the best way I can. @cliffordcooley . Look at this image http://www.imacify.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/cable-300x225.jpg
you'll see a wire coming out of the middle that connects to a computer, now if it is called "binary" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_code then yes.
We know when we download something it has binary on it sometimes.
So in answer to your question, I'd say I'm asking where are they stored/come from on the internet? I'm hoping I haven't confused myself & others more than necessary.
@Cobalt006 , those programs I guess ride on the binary stream if I can use that to put it in picture form to bring it to a computer. Am I still confused? :)
 
It is like @John C Bell explained. There can be a server from every home connected to the Internet. Every server connected to the Internet is where data is stored. Basically the same concept as a P2P connection. You are connecting to one of Billions of servers every time you connect to a website or make a download. These servers can be located anywhere on the planet, there is no designated place.

On a side note: Anyone can make any location a Data storage bank. A bank of thousands of computers and storage devices, to make it a huge server location.
 
Ok, since I may not be explaining it properly, I'll try putting my question in a mental picure form.
You turn your computer on & you get a stream internet icon.JPG icon showing you're on the internet. You get a popup telling you a program needs a update so you update it which hops on that stream to flow into your computer.
So I guess what my question is putting it in another picture form, the mountains are the servers,the stream is the internet. The stream flows down to many reservoirs which in turn allow that water stream to go to each & every house & into your computer.
Trust me, I'm not going to push this too far. Just trying to unconfuse me. Thanks.:)
 
The 1s and 0s are just a representative of Power on, power off.

So Binary is merely electricity flying through your processor's silicon cells in an on/off pattern. When, as humans, represent it as 101110 but in reality it's "On Off On On On Off"

That help?
 
Thats why I thought using the mountains as servers & stream as the internet would be easier to put it in a mental picture.
So in that case, I'm not going to pursue this any farther. I thank everybody for their input & will do more online reading. If I find something that explains it to my liking, I'll post it. Thank you everybody for your input & patience. :) :)
 
I think I understand what you are asking now. Are you are asking what the physical infrastructure between nodes are made of. The physical connection between servers. Thats the closest analogy to streams as I can think of.
 
I was using streams because in my mind it best describes how a movie/news cast comes from its source to your pc. When I'm streaming http://www.kirotv.com/s/news/live/ it to me is like the news riding the internet stream to my pc. If you pull your cable/ethernet cable out, its like dropping a dam in the stream. The movie/news quits flowing to your pc.
You could be very correct, I probably just don't know how to correctly word it. :)
 
I was using streams because in my mind it best describes how a movie/news cast comes from its source to your pc. When I'm streaming http://www.kirotv.com/s/news/live/ it to me is like the news riding the internet stream to my pc. If you pull your cable/ethernet cable out, its like dropping a dam in the stream. The movie/news quits flowing to your pc.
You could be very correct, I probably just don't know how to correctly word it. :)


To know from where the internet comes is to know the secret of the cosmic muffin.
Just be happy, my friend, that it exists for us. ;0)
 
Well, you see, when a guy (or a girl) visits a certain kind of website, sometimes...............

This is really a conversation you should be having with your webmaster or ISP.
 
Well, you see, when a guy (or a girl) visits a certain kind of website, sometimes...............

This is really a conversation you should be having with your webmaster or ISP.
I plan on talking to my landlord since he works for a local ISP. Thank you. :)
 
Ok, while I was visiting a friend Friday night, I brought this thread up & when he asked me if I was talking about the "SIGNAL"? That to me sounded correct sice your computer won't connect to the internet if it don't receive the signal. So, where the signal comes from originally is what I'd like to know.? :)
 
There is no single source, which is why it is referred to as a WWW (World Wide Web). With every server creating it's own node as a single source within the web of multiple sources.
 
Do you have, or have ever been to someone's house that has a home network? Where they have multiple computers connected to the same network and can print from any computer, or can access shared files across the computers (Windows Homegroup tried to simplify it). Thats analogous to a mini internet. The difference is the software you use to explore it.
 
I just came across this topic, I know it's kind of old but I think the original question may have been about bandwidth and not where the data comes from. When they referred to where do ISPs get their internet from I kind of feel like he may have been asking about the "BACK BONES" or "TRUNKS" sorry forgot the exact term that they use. Anyway I do recall seeing a diagram/map at one point showing in which areas of the U.S these were located. Yes the information is stored everywhere, but it seems to make more since that the OP may have been asking a question like this - In the same way our ISP gives us the ability to connect up to all the other computers out there, where does the ISP get this ability? Which is more or less asking where the ISP is getting the address pool they are allocating from. anyway just my 2 cents, that's how I was interpreting the question
 
I just came across this topic, I know it's kind of old but I think the original question may have been about bandwidth and not where the data comes from. When they referred to where do ISPs get their internet from I kind of feel like he may have been asking about the "BACK BONES" or "TRUNKS" sorry forgot the exact term that they use. Anyway I do recall seeing a diagram/map at one point showing in which areas of the U.S these were located. Yes the information is stored everywhere, but it seems to make more since that the OP may have been asking a question like this - In the same way our ISP gives us the ability to connect up to all the other computers out there, where does the ISP get this ability? Which is more or less asking where the ISP is getting the address pool they are allocating from. anyway just my 2 cents, that's how I was interpreting the question
I think the proper term I was looking for was "signal" . Earlier in this thread I likened it to water going thru a dam to give us electricity.
In a nutshell, none of us could get tTechSpot with out a signal. Whether dial up, cable or ?? there is a signal that flows thru the cable,wire that ends up at your computer, where does that signal originate.
 
Well the signal that gets you to where you want to go comes from that domain. Like others have said in that respect the Internet is a massive inter connecting web of computers and devices. As far as where that ability to traverse this massive web. I.E our internet connection. There really are physical lines that run all across the world including under oceans, not just one line mind you. These are what are known as the backbone lines, there massive bandwidth capabilities allow the trillions of bits of data that are flowing constantly to get to where they are going. Then we have tier 1 providers that collectively help manage the traffic in these lines and are all in contact with eachother. They are the ones that sell the signal/bandwidth to your ISP for you to use. Keep in mind that some of the tier 1 providers are ISPs themselves. For instance in the U.S AT&T and Verizon are both tier 1 providers. Some helpful search terms you might want to Google would be "internet backbone" "tier 1 providers" "tier 1 backbone line" I'm not sure if this answered your question exactly but for the very least if your wondering where your ISP gets internet from then these tier 1 providers are as high as the chain of command goes. As others posted though nothing is centralized none of these providers own the Internet or any sort of thing like that and they have nothing to do with the content within the web, it's more about routing all that data. In the same way the road you take to get the grocery store has nothing to do with what they are selling but you needed the road to drive on for you to get there.
 
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