Your device
A tap on a phone or laptop becomes a request that leaves the device.
One more sentence, for a grown-up
The device builds that request before anything else on this trip happens. As of 2026, that work is still ordinary computing, not a special internet machine.
About the size of a hand. The model is not to scale.
Real: What it looks like.
- Packets
Keys: arrows rotate · + / − zoom · 0 reset · 1–4 views · S signal · T tour · L labels · Space spin. The model is stylised. The network on this page is made up.
Every labeled part
- 1
The screen
You tap a link. The device starts a request.
- 2
The radio
A phone sends the request out as radio. A plugged-in computer can use a cable instead.
- 3
Memory
The device keeps track of what it asked for, so it knows the reply is for it.
- 4
The request
The request is a message: which page, and who is asking.
- Packets
Try it
This switch runs the packets on the model above. Off: the request stays. On: the request leaves.
The request stays on the device.