How does information travel on the internet?
How does information travel on the internet?
Each packet of information transported over the Internet must be packaged in a special way to ensure that it is able to travel from one computer to the next. A system called Internet Protocol (IP) takes chunks of information and wraps them up with a header identifying both where the information is going and how it should be handled enroute.
IP Addresses
An IP address defines the specific computer on the Internet that should send or receive a packet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address, including your SOHO device. When defining a service behind your firewall, you need to include the trusted network address for the machine hosting the application.
On the Internet, IP addresses can be identified using either a string of numbers or a
Protocol
A protocol defines how a packet is bundled up and packaged for shipment across a network. The most commonly used protocols are Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). In addition, there are a variety of IP protocols which are used less frequently.
Port number
The port number alerts the computers at both the sending and receiving end how to handle the packet.
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