The purpose of this introductory article is to take a basic look at the journey of a packet across 
the Internet, from packet creation to switches, routers, NAT, and the packet’s traverse across the Internet. This topic is recommended for those who are new to the networking and security field and may not have a basic understanding of the underlying process.
Introduction
Previous articles by this author have looked at the importance of two key areas of computer security for new users: programming and networking. While they are different disciplines, both networking and programming should largely be viewed as complimentary. If it were it not for the early programming of networking protocols there would be no network. That said, does one have to be a programmer in order to fully grasp networking concepts and theory at a low level? In many cases, you do not. However, a reader’s natural curiosity will likely lead him toward programming at some point, in order to further experiment with various protocols and networking theory.
For many people new to the field, the first encounter with a computer is still a rather memorable one. When one discovers the Internet, the sheer magnitude of information provokes a sense of awe, and hopefully creates some curiosity on how the underlying technologies work. Perhaps the following quote from Humpty Dumpty is quite apropos, "We’ve crossed through the looking glass, Alice." One has seemingly entered a whole new world when using a computer to interact with other systems across the world. It is the curiosity about how this works that drives those new to the field to need to understand how did the computer and network does its thing. How did the information go from one computer to the next, and in turn go through all the various devices in order to reach its destination, sometimes continents away? Basic journey of a packet
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