To get online you need - a computer,
- a modem and
- a connection to
the internet
This can also be done via a mobile phone.
- The person types a web address in their browser.
- This prompts the computer to contact a network of DNS servers which hold the address of millions of web servers around the world.
- Once the DNS server identifies the location of the webpage it sends it back to the computer.
- The computer then contacts the server and requests the web page.
- To speed the transfer of data over the network, it is split into small chunks known as packets.
- These are sent on different routes around the internet.
- The packets are re-assembled in the web browser to show the complete page.
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The internet by numbers
Internet users in the world
1,700,000,000
E-mail messages sent today
284,200,000,000
Blog posts today
633,333
Google searches today
3,033,706,984
The counters display estimated figures based on various data sets.
Source: Realtimestatistics.org
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
The counters display: - An approximation of the number of new connections added to the internet. At current rates, this is approximately six per second.
- The number of e-mail messages sent from 00:00 GMT each day. The figure includes spam.
- The number of blog posts since 00:00 GMT each day.
- An approximation of the number of Google searches done since 00:00GMT each day.
SuperPower:
a season of programmes exploring the power of the internet.
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