The best internet connection is one you don't ever notice, and while we use the internet for everything these days, most of us don't know the first thing about our internet plan beyond the bill.
As broadband experts, we've come a long way in terms of reading broadband nutrition labels, deciphering ISP-marketing jargon and learning how to boost our own home networks. In this article, we'll give you the rundown on how your internet works and how to pick the best possible plan. But if you take away anything, it should be this: The more you know about how your internet works, the more money you can save and the better off you'll be.
Let's get started.
Locating local internet providers
How does the internet work?
The most fundamental question about the internet is, of course, about how it actually works. You may be surprised to learn that the internet relies on a vast network of fiber optic cables that transmit data through light signals. Yes, light signals. You’re reading this now while binge-watching your favorite show because of the data transmitted by light signals, which connected your router to a much bigger network of cables, some of which travel underneath the sea.
Truthfully, you don’t need to know how the internet works on a technical level to use it. But the trick to knowing how your internet provider can charge you an extra $12 monthly for an infrastructure fee, as well as the key to boosting your internet speeds, lies in understanding how our routers get online.
Locating local internet providers
The internet is considered a wide area network (also called an interconnected network or WAN) and is a worldwide connection of millions of computer networks using millions of routers and data servers to accommodate a single request.
Like ours, your head will start to spin if you try to disentangle just where this labyrinth of connections begins and ends. Even if parts of the backbone of the internet were to falter, the internet would continue to exist because of the sheer magnitude and complexity of the network.
... continue reading