What is Network?

Networks are like connections between things. Think about your friendship circle - you are all connected because you have similar interests, hobbies, and skills.

Networks can be found in many aspects of our lives:

• A city's public transportation system

• Meeting and greeting your neighbors

In computing, networking is the same idea, but it involves technological devices. Let's take your phone as an example. You have a phone to access things, right? Well, we'll explore how these devices communicate with each other and the rules they follow.

A network in computing can be formed by as few as 2 devices or as many as billions. These devices include your laptop, phone, security cameras, traffic lights, and even farming equipment.

What is the Internet?

The Internet is like one big network made up of many smaller networks. Imagine that Rahul made some new friends named Ajay and Riya that he wants to introduce to Ram and Akshay. The problem is that Rahul is the only person who speaks the same language as Ajay and Riya. So Rahul becomes the messenger, connecting everyone and forming a new network.

The first version of the Internet was created in the late 1960s as part of the ARPANET project. This project was funded by the United States Defense Department and was the first documented network in action. However, it wasn't until 1989 that the Internet as we know it today was invented by Tim Berners-Lee with the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW). This is when the Internet started being used to store and share information.

The Internet is made up of many small networks that are connected. These small networks are called private networks. The networks that connect these small networks are called public networks, or simply the Internet. So, to summarize, a network can be either a private network or a public network.

Identifying devices on a network

Devices on a network need to be identifiable to communicate and maintain order. They have two means of identification: an IP address and a MAC address. An IP address is a set of numbers divided into four octets that identify a device on the network. IP addresses can change from device to device but cannot be active simultaneously more than once within the same network. There are public and private IP addresses, with public addresses used to identify devices on the Internet and private addresses used to identify devices on a local network. Public IP addresses are provided by ISPs. As more devices connect to the network, it becomes harder to obtain a public IP address that isn't already in use.

Ping(ICMP)

Ping is one of the most fundamental network tools available to us. Ping uses ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) packets to determine the performance of a connection between devices, for example, if the connection exists or is reliable.

Ping measures the time it takes for these ICMP packets to travel between devices. It does this by sending an "echo" packet from one device to another, and then waiting for the other device to send back an "echo reply".

You can use Ping to check the connection between devices on your home network or even websites on the internet. It's a really handy tool that comes pre-installed on operating systems like Linux and Windows.

Using Ping is super easy! All you need to do is open up your command prompt or terminal and type in "ping" followed by the IP address or website URL you want to check. For example, if you want to ping Google, you would type in "ping www.google.com".