e, e-commerce payment gateways (which process credit card payments) and proxy servers (which allow your ISP to provide faster Web browsing services). Since every Internet application requires a server somewhere to provide these services, still other servers run multi-play games, store and distribute news, provide chat and ICQ facilities and distribute music.Routers: In addition to servers to run applications, routers are needed to direct information. Routers are dedicated computers that interconnect the various parts of the Internet. When a router receives a packet-- a package of data exchanged between devices over a data communication link-- of information it reads the header. This determines where the information came from and where it needs to go. If the packet needs to go to a computer on the same network, the router simply ignores it. On the other hand, if the packet needs to go to a computer on a different network, the packet is passed on to the destination network. At the destination network, the destination router performs a similar function. It ignores packets destined for its network and passes packets on to other networks as appropriate.Packets: The Internet transfers data around the network in discrete packets of information. Since there are now millions of computers on the Internet, it is impossible to have physical circuits connecting each computer to the others. Thus, it is impossible to use switched circuits since the delay in establishing and disconnecting switched circuits each time a connection was made would effectively stop the Internet. How is Data Exchanged?Data is exchanged between programs by using protocols. The four most common areFile Transfer Protocol (FTP)GopherHypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)First, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is one of the oldest and most popular of all Internet services. FTP is a simple protocol that defines how binar...
