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The internet is an ever-growing network of connected devices that spans the world.

These devices can share information with each other through cables that stretch between towns, cities, countries and continents.

The internet allows information to be sent from one part of the world to another part in less than one second.

So that we can view our favourite webpages, play games, watch videos and communicate on the internet, we need to have some internet hardware.

Look at the slideshow to find more about the role of each piece of internet hardware.

When all of the data packets arrive at your computer, they may have actually come different ways.

Routers check to see which routes are the quickest before sending data.

This means that some of the data packets might travel different ways to get to your computer. This journey may involve travelling underground, through the oceans or in the air.

The data packets are all given a number before they are sent.

The computer uses these numbers to put the information back together in the right order.

Then, the web browser displays the webpage to you.

If you go to a friend's house after school, your parent or guardian might ask your friend's parent or guardian to let them know that you've all got there safely.

Web servers do a similar thing with data packets.

Each data packet sends a message back to the web server to say it has arrived. If the web server does not get a message from a packet, it will resend that packet.

Both of these actions are part of the internet protocol known as TCP/IP.