October 2013
Updated July 2023
Like all granddads the world over, I know everything and what I don’t know I can make up very quickly 🙂 My grandson asked “what is the Internet?” As an IT geek; I do know a lot about the Internet but I struggled to find an explanation suitable for a 6 yr old and he’s still struggling to understand WiFi 🙂 Magic seems to be a good explanation!
This got me thinking, I’ve prided myself (over the years) in being able to explain technical stuff in plain English to non-technical people by finding things that they can relate to (not always easy). “Magic” wasn’t really a good answer for an enquiring mind, neither was “smoke & mirrors” 🙂 So the thinking went on.
We have brilliant people such as Liklider and Tim Berners Lee and generally we think of the Internet and computers as being “partners in crime” but I realised that the “Internet” origins are a lot older and preceded computers.
I’m thinking about the early days of telegraphy and it’s main use was probably mainly associated with the railways but someone had to start laying all the “telegraphic” cables from town to town, village to village etc. The logistics are mind boggling, how could anyone come up with a plan to get all these cables laid, underground, overground, under the oceans; magic again seems to be a good word, awesome just doesn’t do it.
The introduction of Telegraph was responsible for helping to “Standardise Time”. When Railways started out, it became apparent that Time needed to be “standardised” or “Railway Timetables” would not work in a practical manner. A good read about “Standardising Time” can be found on the Science Museum site.
Then telephones starting coming on board, (late 1870’s) using the same cables as the telegraph but extra ones also. In my work as an IT geek, I once had the task of introducing telecoms engineers to smartphones and showing them how to use them and take photos to squirt back to base as part of our “IT in the Field” project. I won’t bore you with the details but I had the privilege of seeing for my own eyes what is down those holes in the road where telecoms engineers disappear! For years I’ve often thought about that and about all the cables running under ground. This particular group of engineers were tasked with removing the old “Trunk” cable running underground from Edinburgh to London! Imagine that, it was a main trunk cable! The old cable was about 3 inches (75mm) in dia and contained a few hundred twisted pairs of cables. They were replacing these with Optical Fibre cables of maybe 25mm dia that are capable of thousands of connections instead of hundreds.
When you think about it, these (old & new) cables are part of the Infrastructure that we call the “Internet”. All of the voice and data traffic is squirted down these cables and then you wonder how can they replace the cable without disrupting the data flow. Sorry, magic again 🙂 It is likely that the fibre cables would have been installed before the removal of the old cables.
I’m of the opinion that our thanks should go to the amazing telecoms companies world wide, it is these people that have put in place the Infrastructure for the Internet and indeed these cables ARE the Internet. Back in the day, when you used a telephone; you were in principle connecting to the Internet but only using analogue (voice) signals. Back in the day, before computers, all the switching had to be done using valves and a lot of manual stuff, then came transistors and of course computers; which gave us routers and all manner of automation. New technologies able to make use of these old cables along with computers has got us where we are now. Magnificent people working invisibly to give us the modern Internet, which allows us to use the services like the World Wide Web, Email, Cloud storage etc all of which need the Internet. Of course it’s a lot more complex these days!
Stand up and give a cheer for those pioneers in telegraphy and telephony, without them, we would still be using Semaphore and signal fires 🙂 On the bright side we wouldn’t be choking on UCE / spam:-)
If you’re interested in reading more about the Internet, hop over to internetsociety.org http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet
Lots of lovely stuff to read.
I think my grandson now sort of understands that the “Internet” refers to the “Infrastructure” (the cables, routers and switches) and that the WWW and other services are services that use the “Internet” (an infrastructure).
With regard to “connectivity” I’m still working on trying to give my grandson a suitable answer to explain WiFi, Ethernet and 3 / 4G. He doesn’t get Ethernet because he only uses WiFi or 4G but he’s getting the idea of WAP (Wireless Access Points) and is coming round to the idea of “radio waves”. He (and his younger brother) understand that they need a “WiFi password” to access “the Internet” but trying to explain the the difference between WiFi and 4G still needs a bit of work 🙂
Recent discussion with my (oldest grandson, now 14) we were talking about WAPs and Ethernet and general Internet connections – mainly slow connections. From past discussions, he knows that Ethernet (using a cable) is a better / faster / more reliable connection than WiFi. We talked about WiFi 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections and the benefits / advantages of using each of the “frequencies”. We broached the “mobile data” thing again and he realised that the 3G / 4G / 5G thing is nothing to with WiFi. I explained the difference between WiFi and “mobile data” and that 3G, 4G and 5G are nothing to do with WiFi. The “number” followed by the “G” simply means “number” Generation e.g. 4G = fourth generation, 5G = fifth generation.
I think he now understands that when he connects to the Internet using his phone when out and about he is not connected to a WAP, he is using the mobile phone network e.g Mobile Data.
I think he understands that when he uses his laptop at home he can connect to the Internet using a cable (Ethernet) or he can use WiFi by connecting to the WAP built-in to the Internet Gateway Router. He seems to understand that he can use WiFi on his phone to connect to the Gateway router, instead of using “mobile Data”.
I think he now understands that mobile phones use “radio signals” to connect to a local / nearby “mast” and this is a different “system” and is nothing to do with WiFi.
I think he now understands that WiFi also uses radio signals but his devices connect to a WAP, using different frequencies.
I think he now understands that his mobile phone can use WiFi to connect to a WAP and this avoids using the “Mobile phone (data)” path.
I think he understands that when he is out and about, his Internet connection is provided by his mobile phone network unless he connects to a nearby WAP!
Updated 2022_07