How the internet works: a plain explanation

IP addresses, DNS, packets, HTTPS, Wi-Fi and routers, speed and ping: how the internet works, explained through the post, plus home network setup.

Every day we chat in messengers, watch videos and pay online. Yet what the “internet” actually is, how a page appears on screen in a second, and why everything sometimes suddenly slows down are things many people do not know. In this guide we explain how the internet works without jargon, using the post and postal addresses as an analogy: the difference between a network and the internet, IP addresses, DNS, what happens when you type an address into a browser, packets and routing, servers and clients, and HTTP and HTTPS. Then we look at how a home network is built, how to read speed figures, how to set up a router securely and how to fix simple problems yourself. At the end there is a practice exercise and a checklist.

Network and internet: what is the difference

A network is a group of devices that can exchange data with each other. The phone, laptop, TV and router in your home together form a small home network. The computers and printer in an office are a network too.

The internet is a “network of networks” that connects millions of such networks to one another. No single company or country runs it: it is made up of many independent networks working to shared rules (protocols).

An analogy: your home network is your courtyard or flat. Within the mahalla, neighbours can walk over to each other directly. But to send a letter to a relative in another city, you need a postal system: post offices, sorting centres, roads. The internet is that same postal system, except that instead of letters it carries digital data and delivers it in a fraction of a second.

Another pair that people often mix up is the internet and a website. The internet is the “roads”, and websites are just one kind of “building” you can reach along those roads. Email, messengers and online games also use the internet, but they are not websites.

IP addresses and DNS: the internet’s address system

IP addresses

For the post to deliver a letter, it needs an exact address: region, district, street, house number. On the internet this job is done by the IP address, the numeric address of every device connected to a network.

The most common form (IPv4) is four numbers from 0 to 255 separated by dots. For example (illustrative): 192.168.1.15. Because the number of such addresses is limited, a newer, longer format, IPv6, has also been introduced.

An important point: your home has two kinds of address.

Internal (local) address: the address your router gives each device in the home. It only means something inside the home, like “bedroom” or “kitchen” inside a flat.
External (public) address: the address your provider gives your router. The whole world “sees” your home by this address. All the devices in your home go out under one shared address, and the router passes incoming replies to the right device.

DNS: the internet’s phone book

In a phone book we look up a name, such as “Mum” or “Akbar aka”, not a number. On the internet this job is done by DNS (the Domain Name System): it turns a domain name like example.com into an IP address the computer understands.

When you type a site’s name into your browser, your device first asks a DNS server, “What is the number for this name?” Once it has the answer, it connects to that exact IP address. Answers are stored on the device and the router for a while (cached), which is why familiar sites open faster.

If DNS stops working, you get the “the internet is on, but sites will not open” situation: the connection is there, but the phone book has gone missing.

What happens when you type an address into a browser

Suppose Dilnoza types https://example.com/yangiliklar into her browser’s address bar and presses Enter. That whole line is called a URL: https is the protocol, example.com is the domain and /yangiliklar is a page within the site. In less than a second, the following happens:

Resolving the domain name. The browser looks up the IP address of example.com, first in its own memory and, if it is not there, by asking a DNS server.
Connecting. The device sends a connection request to the server at that IP address. The server replies, and they agree to “talk”.
Setting up a secure channel. Because the address starts with https, the browser and server agree on encryption keys, and the browser checks the site’s certificate.
Request. The browser sends the server an HTTP request: “Please give me the /yangiliklar page.”
Response. The server returns the page’s HTML code. The code contains links to images, style files and scripts, and the browser requests those separately too.
Rendering. The browser puts all the files it has received together and draws the page on screen.

A browser error message tells you at which step the process stopped: “site can’t be found” usually points to the DNS step, and “connection timed out” to the connection step.

Packets, routing, servers and clients

Packets and routing

A large file or a video is not sent across the internet as one solid piece. It is split into many small packets. Like an envelope, each packet carries the sender’s and recipient’s addresses, plus a sequence number.

An analogy: Sardor wants to send a thick book from Samarkand to his brother in Tashkent, but the post only accepts small envelopes. He splits the book into pages, numbers each envelope and sends them off. The envelopes may travel by different roads and arrive at different times. His brother puts the book back together using the numbers. If one envelope goes missing, he asks for just that one to be sent again.

On the internet, the envelopes are directed by routers. Each router looks at the address on a packet and passes it on to the next “post office”. If one road is busy or cut, packets take another route. That is why the internet does not stop altogether when a single cable is cut.

Servers and clients

A server is a computer that stays switched on to serve other devices: it stores web pages, videos and emails and sends them out on request. A client is the device or program using the service: your phone, your browser, a messenger app.

An analogy: a library (the server) and a reader (the client). The reader asks for a book, and the librarian finds it. To serve a huge number of readers at once, popular sites run on many servers. When you upload photos to cloud storage, they too are actually stored on someone’s server.

Two related terms: download means getting data from a server onto your device, and upload means sending data from your device to a server. More in the glossary.

HTTP and HTTPS: what the padlock means

HTTP is the set of “rules of conversation” between a browser and a server. With plain HTTP, data is sent in the open: someone along the way (on an open Wi-Fi network, for example) could see or change it. It is like a postcard that both the postman and the neighbour can read.

HTTPS is the same rules, but the data is sent encrypted. It is a closed, sealed envelope that only the recipient can open. The padlock icon next to the address bar (in some browsers, a settings icon in its place) shows that the connection is over HTTPS.

What the padlock means

The data between you and the site is encrypted on its way.
You really are connected to the domain shown in the address bar: the certificate was issued for exactly that domain.
The data has not been altered on its way.

What the padlock does not mean

It does not mean the site is honest or trustworthy. Scammers get HTTPS certificates without any trouble.
It does not mean the domain belongs to the organisation you think it does. A name like bank-uz-bonus.example can show a padlock, but it is not a bank.
It does not guarantee that files on the site are free of malware.

So before entering a password or card details, look not at the padlock but at the domain name: are the letters right, has an extra word been added? There is more on this in our article on online safety.

The home network: router, Wi-Fi, fibre and mobile internet

How the internet reaches your home

Fibre optic: a thin glass fibre that carries data as light signals. Many city homes now have this kind of cable installed. A small device (a terminal) is fitted in the home to turn the fibre signal into an ordinary network signal; it is often in the same box as the router.
Mobile internet: a connection by radio signal through mobile masts (4G, 5G). It is handy where laying a cable is difficult, but the speed depends on signal strength, the building and how many people nearby are using it.

Router and Wi-Fi

The router is your home network’s “post office”. It shares the internet from your provider with the devices in your home, gives each one an internal IP address and sends packets to the right device.

Wi-Fi is the wireless link between the router and your devices. It is not the internet itself, only the “last metre” inside your home. That is why you can have “Wi-Fi but no internet”: your phone is connected to the router, but the router itself has lost its connection to the provider.

Two Wi-Fi frequencies worth knowing about:

2.4 GHz: reaches further and passes through walls better, but is slower, and neighbouring networks interfere with it more.
5 GHz: faster, but distance and walls weaken it more quickly.

If you can connect a computer or TV to the router with a cable, that usually gives the most stable connection, especially for video calls and online lessons. Keep the router in the middle of your home, in an open, raised spot.

Speed and ping: reading the numbers correctly

Mbit/s and MB/s

Providers state speed in megabits per second (Mbit/s). Browsers and download programs, however, often show megabytes per second (MB/s). 1 byte = 8 bits, so:

Illustrative example: with a connection speed of 80 Mbit/s, downloads will show roughly 80 ÷ 8 = 10 MB/s.
Illustrative example: downloading a 500 MB file at 10 MB/s would in theory take about 50 seconds. In practice it may take a little longer because of the server, Wi-Fi quality and other devices.

So the worry that “the speed is 8 times lower than promised” is often just a difference in units.

Another difference: download and upload speeds are often not the same. The first matters for watching videos; for video calls and sending files to the cloud, the second matters too.

Ping (latency)

Ping is the time it takes a signal to reach a server and come back, measured in milliseconds (ms). It is not speed but latency. Illustrative example: with a ping of 20 ms, replies arrive almost instantly; at several hundred ms, words in a video call arrive “late” and movement in an online game feels sluggish. Ping has little effect on downloading files but a big one on live communication.

To check your speed, use a website or app that measures internet speed. For a more accurate result, measure several times, over a cable if possible, and pause other downloads.

Setting up your home network securely and fixing problems

Setting up the router

You usually reach the router’s settings page through a browser: the address (most often 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1) and the default login are printed on the label underneath the router. Menu names vary by model, but you will usually find the following:

Change the administrator password. This is not the Wi-Fi password but the password for the router’s settings. The factory password is often widely known, so change it first (the section is called System, Administration or Management).
Choose the encryption type. In Wireless → Security, choose WPA3 or, if it is not available, WPA2 (WPA2-PSK, AES). Do not use WEP or “Open” (no password) mode.
Set a strong Wi-Fi password. At least 12 characters: a phrase, not a date of birth or a phone number.
Change the network name (SSID). Do not put your surname or flat number in it.
Turn off WPS. Connecting at the press of a button is convenient but is a security weak spot.
Update the firmware. Check for updates in Firmware Update or a similarly named section.
Turn on a guest network. A Guest Network is a separate network for visitors and “smart” devices (TV, camera). They get online but cannot see your home computers.

Example: Bobur aka often has relatives to stay. He turned on the guest network and stuck its password to the kitchen door. The main network password is known only to the family, and his work laptop is protected separately.

Fixing simple problems step by step

If the internet is not working, check things in this order before calling a technician:

Where is the problem? Is the internet working on another device (your phone, say)? If only one device is affected, the problem is with that device. If none work, it is with the router or the provider.
Look at the router’s lights. If the Internet or WAN light is off or red, the connection may be down on the provider’s side.
Restart the router. Unplug it, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in and give it a few minutes to start up fully. This fixes many temporary glitches.
Reconnect the device. Turn Wi-Fi off and on again, or restart the device.
Check with commands (below).
Contact your provider. If nothing has helped, tell them what you have already checked; the problem will be found faster.

On Windows, type “cmd” in the Start menu and open Command Prompt. Enter the following commands one at a time:

ipconfig
ping 192.168.1.1
ping 8.8.8.8
ping example.com
ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig shows your computer’s internal IP address and the “Default Gateway” (the router’s address). Use that exact address in the next command.
ping plus the router’s address checks the link between the computer and the router. If “Reply from…” lines appear, your home network is working.
ping 8.8.8.8 contacts a public server on the internet by its numeric address. If it replies, you have internet.
ping example.com contacts a server by name. If the number gets a reply but the name does not, the problem is with DNS.
ipconfig /flushdns clears the computer’s out-of-date DNS memory.

On macOS, ping works the same way in the Terminal app (stop it with Ctrl + C), and you can see network details under System Settings → Network.

Common mistakes

The router is left with its factory password.
The Wi-Fi password is given to neighbours, technicians and passing visitors and then never changed.
The router is put in a cupboard, behind the TV or on the floor.
Speed is measured only on a phone, over Wi-Fi, in a far room, leading to the conclusion that “the provider is cheating”.
Account logins and payment details are entered on open Wi-Fi networks (cafes, stations).

Practice exercise and checklist

You can do this exercise at home in 30–40 minutes:

Run the ipconfig command on your computer and write down your internal IP address and the router’s address.
Run ping to the router’s address, to 8.8.8.8 and to any website name. Compare the results.
Measure your internet speed on your phone next to the router and in the furthest room. Divide the Mbit/s figure by 8 to work out the approximate MB/s.
Log in to the router’s settings and check the encryption type (WPA2 or WPA3).
If the administrator password is still the factory one, change it and keep it somewhere safe.
Turn on the guest network, or find out whether the option exists.
Open three familiar websites in your browser and check the padlock and domain name on each.

Checklist

I know the difference between a network and the internet, and what IP addresses and DNS do.
I can explain the steps that happen when I type an address into a browser.
I know the padlock means an encrypted connection, not an honest site.
I understand the difference between Mbit/s and MB/s and what ping measures.
The router’s administrator password has been changed, and Wi-Fi is protected with WPA2 or WPA3.
There is a separate network for guests, or I know how to turn one on.
If the internet stops working, I first check another device, restart the router and use ping to find where the problem is.

Understanding how the internet works helps you use it more safely and more consciously: it becomes easier to spot a scam site, fix a problem yourself and speak the same language as a technician. This knowledge is an important part of overall digital literacy.

If you would like to learn to use computers and the internet systematically with a teacher, take a look at our association’s free computer literacy programme, and if you want to work with networks professionally, at the network administration programme. There are other training programmes too. When you are ready, submit an application and our specialists will get in touch.