The goal of this textbook is to provide enough background into the inner workings of the Internet to allow a novice to understand how the various protocols on the Internet work together to accomplish simple tasks, such as a search. By building an Internet with all the various services a person uses every day, one will gain an appreciation not only of the work that goes on unseen, but also of the choices made by designers to make life easier for the user.

Each chapter consists of background information on a specific topic or Internet service, and where appropriate a final section on how to configure a Raspberry Pi to provide that service.

While mainly meant as an undergraduate textbook for a course on networking or Internet protocols and services, it can also be used by anyone interested in the Internet as a step–by–step guide to building one's own Intranet, or as a reference guide as to how things work on the global Internet