In recent years, the Internet has grown and evolved beyond the wildest dreams of its creators. Born out of a research project for academic and military use, the Internet in its current form is an unparalleled general purpose communication network which can transport vast amounts of information to and from anywhere in the world. Today, many traditional activities have found new homes online. Email has replaced the postal service as the dominant carrier of written messages. Online shopping is now a viable, and in many cases superior, alternative to going to the store. Even personal conversations can now be accomplished with combinations of instant messaging, voice over IP, and video conferencing. Given the current growth rate of Internet services, it is not unreasonable to guess that many analog components of our society will begin to shrink or even disappear in the wake of digital communication.

Unfortunately, the Internet is complicated. Not only does it embody infrastructure on the most massive scale, it has also changed dramatically in the decades since its inception. Issues that were not a concern when the Internet population consisted of a few dozen friendly and knowledgeable researchers became important as the Internet began to serve larger, more diverse user-bases and applications. As such, many of the intricacies of today's Internet were tacked on after the fact by different groups of people with different goals. At the same time, many issues that were originally central to the Internet are no longer concerns, yet their legacy lives on in the Internet's design. Finally, bandwidth and speed are so critical for many applications that designers almost universally prefer complicated, high-performance designs to simpler ones.

Given its complexity, most people would rather not spend the effort to figure out how the Internet works. After all, society has survived thus far by and large oblivious to the the workings of its valued technology. Radio, Television, and Mobile Phones obtained almost universal adoption despite being understood by very few people. However, there are several factors that make the Internet fundamentally different from most other technologies and thus warrant an effort by educated non-technical individuals to understand how it works:

• The Internet is Powerful - More so than any other technological advancement in recent history, the Internet is extraordinarily general and extensible. By pushing complexity and functionality to the edges of the network, the Internet remains open to novel uses. The most minor features take years to become available in the telephone network because the technology must slowly penetrate the entire infrastructure. In contrast, anyone can try a new idea on the Internet directly without the need to get an entire industry on board. Armed with an understanding of how it works, individuals can evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of different uses for the Internet, and utilize it to launch their ideas.
• The Internet is Pervasive - The immense potential of the Internet has led thousands of inventors and entrepreneurs to offer content and services online. As more and more of traditional life becomes folded into the network, it becomes increasingly important to have at least some grasp of the technology upon which we base our lives. If humanity is to remain its own master, it cannot live in a world of magic. As the Internet begins to reach into every corner of the world, it is tremendously important for people to understand what it is, what it does, and what it can do.
• The Internet is Political - As the Internet has become more and more fundamental to the modern world, it has been thrust into the political arena. Unfortunately, much of society is completely unprepared to grapple with Internet-related issues because they do not understand how the Internet works and, consequently, do not understand the nature of these issues. Policy-makers struggle to define appropriate laws for Internet-related offenses, such as hacking and piracy. More importantly, they are occasionally faced with decisions related to the fate of the Internet itself, and prove themselves to be largely incapable of informed discussion. Senator Ted Stevens' famous argument on Network Neutrality underscores this issue:

  Ten Movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got...an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

  Stevens' comments were ridiculed time and time again on television, in print, and (of course) on the Internet by proponents of Network Neutrality. Ironically, however, while his critics were generally able to discern that Senator Stevens did not understand how the Internet works, most of them would have been hard-pressed to explain it themselves. Indeed, an overwhelming majority of the discourse on Network Neutrality has been laden with inaccuracies, obtuse metaphors, and blatant falsehood. When so many important issues involve the Internet, is essential for citizens and policy-makers alike to be informed about its nature.

This website offers an understandable guide to how the Internet works aimed at educated individuals with non-technical backgrounds. With the knowledge provided here, the reader should be able to understand what the Internet is, what it can do, how it works, and be able to form intelligent opinions on Internet policy. To lay the groundwork for your understanding of the Internet, begin by reading about the layered architecture of the Internet.