Transferring information via the internet
The internet is a global network of computers, some of which are called A computer that serves web pages to users.. A web server is a computer which holds websites for other computers linked to the internet to access. Holding a website is known as ‘hosting’. A web server may host one or many websites and webpages. Sending information to a web server is known as To add data to a server on the internet, eg you can upload videos to social media websites.. Receiving information from a web server is known as To copy a file from the internet onto your computer or device..
When you make a telephone call, a direct connection is formed between you and the person you are calling. While you are making the call, no-one else can communicate with you. A web server needs to be able to communicate with many different computers at the same time. When information is uploaded to, or downloaded from, a web server it is broken up into tiny pieces called A piece of data sent over a network. Messages have to be broken down into binary data packets before they are transferred.. Each packet is a very short communication between the The computer on a network that request data from a server. computer and the web server. Because each communication lasts only milliseconds, the web server can seemingly communicate with many computers at the same time. It is a bit like having several conversations at the same time, but only saying one word to each person in turn.