To understand how the internet works, imagine it as a massive, global postal system. Instead of letters and packages, the internet delivers data—like web pages, images, and videos—between devices all around the world. This "postal system" is made up of millions of physical components: computers, servers, routers, switches, cables, and wireless connections. Each device is like a house or building in a city, and the cables and wireless signals are the roads and highways connecting them.

Routers act as post offices or traffic directors, making sure each piece of data finds the best path to its destination. When you send a request from your computer (for example, by visiting a website), your message travels through this network, hopping from device to device until it reaches the server that hosts the site. The server then sends the data back, following another route through the network to reach you. This system works reliably and quickly, even though the journey might cross continents and pass through many different types of connections.