Routing table

Okay, so when you want to go somewhere, you usually know how to get there, right? Like if you want to go to the park, you know you have to walk down the street, turn left at the corner, and keep going straight until you see the big playground.

Well, computers need to know how to get places too, like when you type a website name into your web browser. But since they can't just walk or drive, they use something called a routing table.

A routing table is like a computer's map, with all the different places it can go and how to get there. But instead of streets and buildings, it has a list of "IP addresses," which are a bunch of numbers that identify different computers and websites on the internet.

So when you type a website into your browser, your computer looks at its routing table and figures out which "path" it needs to take to get to that website's IP address. It might have to go through a few different stops, like other computers or servers, but eventually it will find the website you're looking for and bring it back to your screen.

And just like you might have a few different ways to get to the park, like taking a shortcut or going the long way around, computers can have different "routes" that they can use to get to the same IP address. The routing table helps them figure out which path is the fastest or most reliable, so they can get you where you're going as quickly and smoothly as possible.