Week 1 & 2

Well this week the journey commenced. 

Started out re-acquainting myself with some old friends;- network topologies and protocols and its reassuring to see that the basic fundamentals haven't changed.
Having a look at all the new technological friends I am yet to meet is a bit overwhelming. Feel as though I am about to be sucked into a great precipice of web services, half of which I wont have the time to do any proper justice, all the while trying to ignore that niggling feeling that another obsession is looming.

So what is the internet?

Apart from being like a giant library hidden inside your computer and to cite week 2's notes "a very big computer network!", it seems to be more about connections - lots of individual networks connecting and communicating with each other in a common language. And those connections are not just limited to what we see on the surface - it is the hidden pathways our little packets of data traipse through to get to their final destination which is enlightening. Proxy trace showed us that it isn't just a matter of getting from A to B but there can be many stops and diversions along the way! Guess that is all part of the journey - the important thing that is that we arrive at the right destination!

next week: what is the world wide web....