NetPractice is a 42 School project about networking! That exclamation mark can be read with a hint of sarcasm, because most of the people I know (myself included) aren't the greatest fans of this subject. It is complicated, a bit abstract and unless it's your job most programmers barely deal with it anymore nowadays. However, it is hugely important if you want at least some basic knowledge about how the internet works. And well the internet, as you might know, is HUGE.

What I learned

So all and all I am happy that I had the opportunity to discover the the basic principles of the TCP/IP protocol, while just messing around a bit with IP-addresses, interfaces, netmasks, subnets, routing tables, routers and switches – all virtually, that is. For me it brought the realization that the internet is just a protocol (and wires) and that any computer that you connect to it and let it speak the protocol actually IS part of the internet. It sounds pretty obvious when I say it like this, but this project really made me realize it on another level.

Because what it really means is that because of its de-central nature, nobody owns the internet and therefore hasn't been able to block the development of it. It makes me doubt that without these properties it wouldn't have come to existence at all, at least not as we know it today. I say this because it feels like an exceptional phenomenon in this time where the world seems getting more polarized and divided. However, you could also argue that the cultural impact of the internet seems to have had a contribution to these negative developments, paradoxically. But well that's maybe another discussion...