Beginner · Lessons: 4
How the internet works
What really happens between your computer and a website, who takes part, and what each of them can see.
- 1 What happens when you open a website
Follow one click from your Mac to a website and back, and see who is involved along the way.
7 min - 2 Packets, routers and the path your data takes
What actually happens to your data between your Mac and a server: chopped into packets, passed hop by hop, sometimes under an ocean.
7 min - 3 HTTPS and certificates: what the padlock proves and what it doesn’t
What TLS actually does, what a certificate really certifies, and why the padlock is not a verdict on whether a site is trustworthy.
8 min - 4 VPNs, Tor and proxies: who you shift trust to
A VPN, Tor and a proxy each hide different things from different people. None of them make you invisible, and each asks you to trust someone.
8 min
Free, no account, nothing tracked. Your progress stays in this browser.