Back in the 1970s there were no standard methods for networks to communicate. Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn created this method called the “Internet Networking Protocol” which is what we now call the Internet. The Internet links billions of devices all around the world. All these devices on the Internet have unique addresses. This Internet protocol address (IP address) is what is used to identify a device. An IP address contains specific information in each set of numbers. The earlier set of numbers identify the country and region, then the subnetworks, and finally the address of the device. This design is called IPv4 which was designed in 1973.
The way information gets transferred from one computer to another is pretty interesting. It does not follow a fixed path, in fact a path may change at any time between a computer to computer conversation. Information on the Internet goes from one computer to another in what we call a packet of information. A packet travels one place to another on the Internet a lot like how you might get from one place to another in a car. Depending on traffic a packet may be forced to take “detours” to get to its destination.
As part of the internet protocol every router keeps track of multiple paths for sending packets and it chooses the fastest possible path per piece of data based on its destination IP address and the best route for data to travel isn’t necessarily the most direct. Having multiple options for paths is what makes the internet reliable for sending information.