Networking

Introduction Computer networks are the backbone of modern computing. Every time you browse a website, send an email, or stream a video, you rely on a complex stack of protocols, algorithms, and hardware working together. This post is a comprehensive guide to how computer networks work — from the physical transmission of bits to the application-layer protocols you use daily. We will walk through the layered network models (OSI and TCP/IP), dive into each layer’s responsibilities, explore routing and addressing, examine transport-layer reliability, and cover essential application-layer protocols. We will also touch on security, cloud computing, peer-to-peer systems, and distributed architectures like blockchain. ...

Basic Application Architecture Developer Perspective A typical application is composed of: Build & Deploy Layer — CI/CD pipeline Server Layer — handles incoming requests Storage Layer — persists application data (can be external) Logging Storage Server — logs all events Metric Storage Server — logs all metrics Alert Server — alerts when something goes down User Perspective Users simply make requests to the server and receive responses. Scaling Vertical Scaling: add more physical resources (CPU, RAM) to a single server Horizontal Scaling: add more servers to distribute the load Load Balancer: distributes traffic between multiple servers ...