Discover how global data packets travel across the internet. Understand IP addressing, subnets, DNS lookups, TCP handshakes, ports, reverse proxies, CDN edge caching, and WebSockets.
A comprehensive guide to IP addresses: IPv4 vs IPv6, public vs private addresses, CIDR notation, subnetting, and how internet routers forward packets.
Learn how the Domain Name System (DNS) resolves human domains into IP addresses: root servers, TLD servers, authoritative name servers, and record types (A, CNAME, MX).
Understand domain name structure: Top-Level Domains (TLDs), Second-Level Domains (SLDs), subdomains, domain registrars, and WHOIS.
Learn what network ports are, how TCP/UDP port numbers route traffic to specific applications, port ranges (0-65535), and network sockets.
Learn what proxy servers do: forward proxies for client privacy, reverse proxies (Nginx, Cloudflare) for load balancing, SSL termination, and security caching.
Discover how CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) accelerate global web performance: edge servers, points of presence (PoPs), Anycast routing, and asset caching.