Who Controls your Internet? How Internet Works? | Explained by Sohail khan 

Hello friends

Have you ever thought about who runs the internet?

Who controls the internet worldwide?

Maybe you could think that the internet provider companies like Jazz, Zong, and Ufone control the internet

But this isn't true because

If one company stops providing it, there are other companies present

Then, you'd think maybe our government controls it, but that isn't true either

At most, the government can remove 2-3 facebook posts or block websites

But they can be bypassed easily

And this does not amount to control over the internet worldwide

Then, maybe you could think that companies like Google, Facebook, and Youtube control it

because they have the largest amount of data

But that isn't true either because you can build a website of your own

and these companies would not be able to interfere in it

So the question is when you are building a website of your own,

Who is providing you the space to create the website on the internet?Is there a website that can tell you which website you can build and which website you cannot?

In this educational blog, I'd like to tell you about the internet

Because the internet is an important tool in maintaining freedom and democracy worldwide

Countries like China keep their citizens blocked off completely from certain websites

Some websites like Google, Youtube, and Facebook are permanently blocked there

Because the Chinese government wants to brainwash its citizens in a particular way

Therefore, I think it's essential to understand how the internet works and what it is

This is what I'd like to tell you in this blog 

Who Controls your Internet? How Internet Works? | Explained by Sohail Khan 

www.youtube.com

This is a URL/link

"youtube" here, is called a domain name

and the".com" is called the top-level domain

If you want to build your website, then you will have to buy your domain name

Some websites sell domain names as their job. For example, GoDaddy.com

You need to go to GoDaddy.com if you wish to buy a domain name for your website

For example, I had to buy Dhruvrathee.com, so I went to GoDaddy.com to buy it

Now the question is, who gave GoDaddy the authority to sell domain names?

Who is GoDaddy to sell domain names?

There must be someone who gives assent to GoDaddy to sell domain names

And if there's no one, then GoDaddy has become the boss of the internet in a way

That is, it would be the one to sell domain names as well as decide who can own which website

But this isn't so

There is another authority above it

Who Controls your Internet? How Internet Works? | Explained by Sohail Khan 

Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers- ICANN

This is a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles

You could say that this is the top-level authority regarding the internet

It has the power to authorize websites like GoDaddy.com to sell domain names

This is the authority that decides upon which websites can sell domain names

This is the top-level authority that decides upon which domain names can exist

There could be .com, .in, .info or .gov

All of this is decided by ICANN

(for example), we may make a website with .gov in its name

We may build domain names with .com in it

Although it is a non-profit organization, it sells top-level domain names to the rest of the companies by bidding

The companies that it sells to are called "registries"

You can go on the website of ICANN and see which companies have bought the different top-level domains

For example, .aaa has been bought by American Automobile Association

Below the registries are the registrars. Companies like GoDaddy.com

that can sell both top-level domains as well as domain names to the people

So, is ICANN the God of the internet?

This cannot be said because the internet is a very decentralized network

You could consider it to be akin to a net

All the mobile phones and computers that are connected to the internet, make up the internet

You could call it a "server"

Your mobiles phones and computers are data centers and servers that are connected through wires

Huge underwater cables have been laid worldwide across the continents

That connect the computers worldwide to one another

which make up the internet

Now, you could ask that my mobile phone isn't connected with any cable,

then how does the internet work on it?

Mobile phones operate through mobile towers and (offer) 3g, 4g which do not have an extremely wide range

Your mobile phones have the 3g/4g signal only when you are close to the mobile towers

But if you move a little further away, then the signals (on your phone) won't show up

So the towers of the mobile phones are connected to wires

And they are eventually connected to those wires that are connected to the wires connected worldwide

Who Controls your Internet? How Internet Works? | Explained by Sohail Khan 

Just like every mobile phone has a number from which you can call another mobile phone,

Similarly, every device that is connected to the internet has an IP address

Be it your computer, your smartphone, or be it any other server like a data center

if it connected to the internet, it will have an IP address

Each website too has an IP address

For example, if you make a phone call on a number, then the call goes on another phone which you can talk on

Similarly, when you type an IP address in your browser,

it goes to another server and you can view the website of that server on your computer

Now you could say that you type the domain name, not the IP address

The domain names are connected to the IP addresses

Humans cannot read the IP addresses because it is written in digits and numbers

So the domain name is a human-readable form of an IP address

When you type the domain name of a website in your browser,

then the thing that converts the domain name into the IP address is called Domain Name Server- DNS

Sometimes the Internet Service Providers block certain websites from the DNS

so that when you type the domain name, it is not able to link it to the particular IP address

So the DNS of the Internet Service Providers blocks you from reaching certain websites

For this, you can simply use a public DNS. For example, the DNS of Google is 8.8.8.8

You can go to your mobile settings and change your DNS

You can go to your computer settings and change your DNS to begin using the Google DNS

Then the blocked websites will get unblocked

Using the VPN is another way

So let us revert to our original question

Who controls the Internet? Whom does it belong to?

The correct answer to this would be that it belongs to nobody and belongs to everybody

Because the internet runs only when it is a decentralized system

And if you wish to buy a part of the internet, if you wish to own it,

You can only do it when you build a website of your own

How can you build a website?

Buy your domain name

Then you'd need to buy a server where your website can be stored

Now you could point out that I had stated that your mobile phones and your computers could also be servers

Yes, they could be

But it does not have enough processing power and space to store an entire website

Also, neither your computers nor your phones run 24/7

Only when it runs 24/7, will your website be available to the users 24/7 on the internet

So what the people generally do is

Large companies have set up their data centers and huge servers, which are very secure

You could go buy a server there to store your website

Then you will have to link your domain name to your server and publish your DNS

Who Controls your Internet? How Internet Works? | Explained by Sohail Khan 

Now, think about it

You own a website. What If you're able to use this website like you use your harddisks or pen drives at home?

Because the website is providing you a storage space, which is on the server

Whenever you're out somewhere

(you could) merely open up your website on the internet

and you're able to view the documents on the website just like you view the documents stored on a hard disk

The difference being, the world would not be able to access this website

Only you would be able to access it because it would have a username and password

So you get your website which you can use like a harddisk