Internet and Web Servers

The web, internet, and cloud sound like ethereal places of the mind. However, they are physical things.

A network is two or more computers connected. The internet is network of networks. So basically, the web is a bunch of computers hooked up with a bunch of wires!

The websites we browse come from Web Servers. Servers are specialized computers that run software to host files and web services. They have processors, memory, hard drives, and network ports just like your computer–in fact you can use your laptop or a Raspberry Pi as a simple server–however, they are designed to pack into racks to maximize use of space and optimized for processing requests.

For more information about how information passes through the internet, check out How Does the Internet Work (video) or Julia Evan’s Networking Zine.