World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is made up of hundreds of thousands of web servers around the world that store data and transfer files from one machine to another.

By simply clicking on hyperlinks, information can be retrieved from anywhere in the world in a fraction of a second.

World Wide Web - Conceptual Overview

Communication between a personal computer and a server computer uses a protocol called HTTP.  When someone requests a web page (e.g. mypage.com), the web browser must first determine where that page physically resides.

A series of DNS servers (Domain Name Servers) exist around the world.  These specialized servers map virtual domain names such as "mypage.com" to a physical addresses (e.g. 216.235.161.11) where that website is physically hosted.

All devices connected to the world wide web must have an IP address.