How the Internet and Web work together

The Internet is the global network infrastructure (cables, routers, ISPs) that moves data between computers using TCP/IP. The Web is a service that runs on top of this infrastructure and lets users read and link documents using HTTP, HTML and URLs. The Internet provides the transport; the Web provides the content and the way to access it.

How they work together

1. The user types a URL such as http://www.example.com/index.html in a browser (web client).
2. The browser asks a DNS server (an Internet service) to convert the domain name into an IP address.
3. Using TCP/IP, the browser opens a connection to the web server at that IP address, port 80 (443 for HTTPS).
4. The browser sends an HTTP request (for example GET /index.html).
5. The web server finds the file (or runs a script that creates the page) and sends an HTTP response with the HTML.
6. The browser reads the HTML, requests images, CSS and scripts it refers to, and displays the page.
7. Clicking a hyperlink starts the same cycle again.

Browser --URL--> DNS --IP--> Browser
Browser ==TCP/IP (Internet)==> Web server
Browser <==HTTP response (HTML)== Web server

Routers and ISPs of the Internet carry the packets; the Web standards (URL, HTTP, HTML) define what is requested and how it is shown. Other services such as email (SMTP) and FTP also use the same Internet but are not part of the Web.