How do IP packets know what hoops/servers to go through to reach the intended recipient’s IP?
In: 2
The same way your mailman knows how to get a letter from your house to your friends house across the country.
Your mailman (router/modem) picks the letter up and takes it to the facility he works for (a router between you and your ISP). The facility (another router between you and your ISP) reads the address and says “well that’s not an address I can deliver to, so I’m going to send it to this other facility (your ISP) that knows more addresses than I do”. The other facility (your ISP) gets it and says “Oh, I can’t deliver that address, but I can send it to this other facility (routers between your ISP and your friends ISP) that can get it to that address”. Repeat until it arrives at the local mail facility (your friends ISP) near your friend, who then puts it on a truck for one of their mailmen to deliver.
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