Network Stacks and the Internet - Computerphile

Surfing the web and Internet stacks.

This video features Richard Mortier.

This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.

[dkamm]

That entire process that took almost 7 minutes to explain takes place thousands of times a second on everyone's network. I love computers.

[InternetSandman]

Hearing all of the steps that a packet has to take between your computer and the target server actually makes it all the more impressive how fast some websites are to load, especially the more content heavy ones

[jskuzma]

Seriously this is the best description of networking I've ever heard! Please keep making these!!!

[guitarplayer]

This made me realize how incredibly hard it is to explain how "the internet" works to someone who knows nothing about the subject.

[ForOrAgainstUs]

As a CCNA, listening to someone I don't work with explain internet packets is still ridiculously complicated. There's a lot that goes into getting a packet from computer on one network to another computer on another network. From the physical equipment, to the physical addresses, to IP addresses, to port address translation, to the protocol of the data, to the language it's written in, to how it's presented to the user. Each layer of the OSI model (which I just went through) deserves a video.

[modolief]

Very well explained, highly actionable info. It's been a while since I took the local community college's "Linux Network Administration" class; this was a nice reminder of how the stack works.

[martixy]

Note this is the TCP/IP model presented in this video.
The other model that describes the same thing is called OSI.

[KelMaiGaming]

They're very smart. This kind of advertising actually works pretty well as opposed to tv ads or banners. By sponsoring podcasts and youtube shows they get pretty much exactly the audience they want and people who might actually be interested in the product. Besides, audiobooks are pretty great in my opinion

[heyandy]

Yes, it can definitely be easier to understand with subtitles, especially with the funny langauge that we computer people use: router, ethernet, TCP. Usually YouTube automatically generates subtitles. I don't see it for this video, but maybe that is because it's a new video and YouTube hasn't finished generating the automatic subtitles yet. Cheers, mate!

[blidge]

That is the private address space reserved for a class C address. It supports 65, 536 and are obviously publically routable.
There are also private address spaces for Class A (10.x.x.x) and Class B (172.16.x.x). You pick the one that fulfills the requirements of your network (typically the number of hosts you will have).

Google "RFC 1918" for more information.

[dutubsucks]

Yes, different kinds of encrypted and private peer-to-peer networks and system is what we need, both from an efficiency standpoint as well as a privacy standpoint.

[acommenter]

6:07

by what method is "closer to" determined?

[seigeengine]

As someone with a very amateur understanding of networking, this was all completely clear, and I'm confident it would have been clear to most viewers if they really spent the time to think about what was being said, and didn't waste time thinking about things which weren't explained. Why? Those things didn't need to be explained. Why? They weren't part of the point.

This is excluding a few things (that are common knowledge anyways), like what "libraries" are/do.

[kmikc]

Please explain IPv6 Origins, functionality, and how it does not requires subnets! Love these videos!

[toobeetoobeetoo]

Conceptually, computers are all about layers of abstraction. When a person looks at the a layer all by itself, the picture isn't too complex. It's the adding up of the layers of abstraction where most of the complexity is. If the layer of abstraction is how transistors work, the bits of data (electrons) follow the rules of physics. If the layer is an API or library, the rules are a complex set of mathematical cascades (program instructions) that govern how the data moves around.

[blidge]

The reason is due to the subnet mask.
When written in binary, the subnet mask for a 10.x.x.x address has 8 1s.
For 172.16 it has 12 1s. For 192.168 it has 16 1s.

It was an arbitrary choice, but obviously well informed.

[ElectricLimeade]

The first 5 you mentioned are communication protocols and all you need to understand is that computers need them to send messages between each other. The URL is an address (like youtube.com) that replaces the IP (74.125.225.224) with something more readable. A MAC is basically a serial number, ISP is Internet Service Provider (i.e. AT&T, Comcast, SuddenLink), and DSL is a line that connects your home modem to your ISP for internet. Just definitions, really.

[ghelyar]

The overhead is generally much less than 10%. For example, IP and TCP headers approx. 20 bytes each, with a 1500 byte MTU on Ethernet.

Advertised speeds and rated speeds differ for many reasons. The most common reason is contention, where nodes share bandwidth so it can fall at peak times. There is also packet loss due to things like interference, where packets don't arrive correctly and need to be re-transmitted, etc.

[hwPeTaL]

For a video on just the stack this is complex, and it alienates people who don't know as much as we do. The TCP/IP and OSI model exists for a reason, for teaching noobs, I don't understand why the focus was on the details before the big picture.

[seigeengine]

Okay, now lay it out in an easily understood and simple (as possible) manner, and we'll all love you forever and always.