Introduction
Hello friends
Have you ever thought about who runs the internet?
Who controls the internet worldwide?
Maybe you could think that the internet provider companies like Jio, Airtel and BSNL control the internet But this isn't true. Because if one company stops providing it, there are other companies present.
Then, you'd think maybe our government controls it, but that isn't true either. Atmost, government can remove 2-3 facebook posts or block websites, But they cannot be bypassed easily and this does not amount to control over the internet worldwide Then, maybe you could think that companies like Google, Facebook and Youtube control it because they have the largest amount of data But that isn't true either because you can build a website of your own and these companies would not be able to interfere in it.
So, the question is, when you building a website of your own, Who is providing you the space to create the website in the internet? Is there a website that can tell you which website you can build and which you cannot? This time, I'd like to tell you about the internet. Because the internet is an important tool in maintaining freedom and democracy worldwide. Countries like China keep their citizens blocked off completely from certain websites Some websites like Google,Youtube and Facebook are permanently blocked there Because the Chinese government wants to brainwash its citizens in a particular way,
Therefore, I think its essentail to understand how the internet works? and what is it? This is what i like to tell you.
Who Controls the Internet?
www.youtube.com This is an URL/Link "youtube" here, is a domain name and the ".com" is called the top level domain, If you want to build your own website, then you will have to buy your domain name. There are some websites that sells domain names as their job. For example, GoDaddy.com, you need to go on GoDaddy.com if you wish to buy a domain name for your website For example, I had to buy xyz.com, so i went to GoDaddy.com and buy it.
Now the question is, who gave GoDaddy the authority to sell domain names? Who is GoDaddy to sell domain names? There must be someone who gives assent to GoDaddy to sell domain names and there is no one, then, GoDaddy has become the boss of the internet in a way that is, it would be the one to sell domain names as well as decide who can own which website But this isn't so, There is other authority above it. The name of this authority is ICANN(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
This is a non-profit organization based on Los Angeles. You could say that this is top level authority regarding the internet. It has power to authorize websites like GoDady.com to sell domain names. This is authority that decides upon which websites can sell domain names. This is top level authority that decides upon which domain names can actually exist. there could be .com, .in, .info or .gov . All of this decided by ICANN For example, we may make a website with .gov in its name, We may build domain names with .com in it, Although it is a non-profit organization, it sells top level domain names to the rest of the companies by bidding. The companies that it sells to are called "registries" You can go o the website of ICANN and see which companies have bought the different top level domains For example, .aaa has been bought by American Automobile Association. Below the registries are the the "registrars" Companies like GoDaddy.com that can sell both top level domains as well as domain names to the people. So, is ICANN the god of internet?
This cannot be said because the internet is a very decentralized network. You could consider it to be akin to a net. All the mobile phones and computers that are connected to the internet, make up the internet, You could call it a "server". Your mobiles phones and computers are data centers and servers that are connected to each other through wires. Huge underwater cables have been laid worldwide across the continents. That connect the computers worldwide to one another, which make up the internet.
Now, you could ask the mobile phone isn't connected with any cable, then how does the internet work on it? Mobile phones operate through mobile towers and (offer) 3g, 4g which do not have an extremely wide range. Your mobile phones have the 3g/4g signal only when you are close to mobile towers, But if you move a little further away, the signals (on your phone) won't show up. So the towers of the mobile phones are actually connected to wires, and they are eventually connected to those wires that are connected to the wires connected worldwide. You can easily understand this in the map.
A big wire came to India via Mumbai from the point of Mumbai, wires are spread out in different directions and reached different areas in India, due to which internet reached different part of the country. So, in a way you could say that the company that has laid down these wires holds a huge amount of significant power, because it is supplying internet to may different places. Secondly, you could say that the companies that lay down cables on land, to help Internet reach every household by connecting these wires to the main cable and connect your computers to the internet worldwide. They too hold amount of significant power, They are called Internet Service Providers-ISPs. These would be Airtel, Jio, BSNL that supply internet to your homes. And yes, they do hold significant power Because these ISPs can block certain websites upon the direction of the government , If the government say so But they do not hold significant powers to control a lot of things. Because you could use VPNs to overcome the blockages of the ISPs
What is IP Address?
Just like every mobile has a number from which you can call another mobile phone, Similarly, evert device that is connected to the internet has an IP address. Be it your computer, your smartphones or be it any other server like a data center, if its connected to the internet, it will have an IP address. Each website too, has an IP address. For example, if you make a phone call on a number, then the call goes on another phone which you can talk on, Similarly, when you type an IP address in your browser, it goes to another server and you are able to view the website of that server on your own computer. Now you could say that you type the domain names, not the IP address.
The domain names are connected to the IP addresses. Actually, humans cannot read the IP addresses because it is written in digit and numbers. So the domain name is a human readable form of an IP address. When you type the domain name of a website in your browser, then the thing that converts domain name into the IP address is DNS(Domain Name Server). Sometimes the internet service providers block certain website from the DNS. So that when you type the domain name, it is not able to link it to the particular IP address So the DNS of the Internet Service Providers blocks you from reaching certain websites. For this, you can simply use a public. DNS. For example, the DNS of the Google is 8.8.8.8 You can go to your mobile settings and change your DNS. You can go to your computer settings and change your DNS to begin using the Google DNS. Then the blocked websites will get unblocked.
Obviously using the VPN is another way. so let us revert to our original question Who control the Internet? Whom does it belong to?
The correct answer to this would be that it belongs to nobody and belongs to everybody. Because the internet runs only when it is decentralized system. and if you wish to buy a part of the internet, if you wish to own it, You can only do it when you build a website of your own. How can you build a website? Buy your own domain name Then you'd need to buy a server where your website cab be stored. Now you could point out that I had stated that your mobile phones and your computers could also be servers. Yes, they could be, But it does not have enough processing power and space to store an entire website. Also, neither your computer nor your phones run 24/7. Only when it runs 24/7, will your website be available to the users 24/7 on the internet. So what the people generally do is Large companies have set up their data centers and huge servers, which are very secure.
You could go buy server there to store your website. then you will have to link your domain name to your server and publish your DNS. Now, think about it You own a website. What if you are able to use this website like you use your harddisks or pendrives at home? Because the website is providing you a storage space, which is on the server. Whenever you are out somewhere you could merely open up your website on the internet and you are able to view the documents on the websites just like you view the documents stored on a hard disk. The difference being, the world would not be able to access this website. Only you would be able to access this website because it would have a username and password. So you get your own website which you can use like a harddisk. Thank you
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