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elchermansFlag for Canada

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How does the Internet Work?

I have been thinking of this for a while, but have not yet received clarity.

How does the Internet work?

Specifically if I get Internet service from a provider, how can they provide Transit or Any-to-Any connectivity, by simply connecting with one or multiple upstream transit providers?

Surely an agreement in some form would have to be made to connect some small ISP or Enterprise on the other side of the globe to myself.
Do Tier 1 providers come into play here. What about peering?

Is it a requirement for certain ISPs to peer with others (either paid or settlement free)  to provide said Transit service?

Any URLs provided for further reading would be much appreciated.
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Peter Chan
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Internet is something like one super-highway, to which the ISP is giving your connec to reach.
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In the 1990's, there was an 'internet backbone' but that disappeared years ago.  ISPs, Internet Service Providers, now have to contract with other companies that provide network connections to their networks.  This article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_service_provider looks like a good description.  That shows a simple diagram.  I can't find a better description right now but one I have seen in the past shows the ISPs connecting to a dozen or more networks.  Some of the networks are not ISPs themselves but just provide connections between ISPs.
A bunch of computers/servers connected via a bunch of routers that route the requests of the computers/servers.  It does this at the speed of light.    

That's a simple explanation, but the complex one includes many types of routers, devices, interfaces, protocols, code, etc....        

It's one big network, the biggest.
Internet is general stands for International Network.

Consider this.
You are a home user getting Internet from ISP A
ISP A has then some kind of connectivity from ISP B who inturn has to C.

There is always a connectivity among them using IPs and DNS.

You as a consumer has a contract of some kind with your ISP and those ISPs have some kind of mutual agreement etc.
If you get service from a provider, it will all depend on who you go with, but most of them have a site-to-site option if that is what you are looking for. Or you can do it yourself by creating tunnels between the sites. I mentioned that specifically because of what you asked.

"Specifically if I get Internet service from a provider, how can they provide Transit or Any-to-Any connectivity, by simply connecting with one or multiple upstream transit providers? "
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Ralph Pickering
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