The internet has two main components – the hardware and the protocols. The hardware includes cables that carry data, radios, routers, satellites, servers, Smartphones, mobile phone towers, and other devices. These devices together form a network of networks. The internet is a flexible system. Although elements leave and join networks around the world, the internet doesn’t change significantly. Some of those elements are more peripheral, while others form the internet’s backbone and may remain quite static.
These elements are connections, and some of them are endpoints such as Smartphones, computers or other devices you are using. Those are called endpoints clients. The devices that store the data you are looking for online are called servers. Nodes are an element that acts as a connecting point along a traffic route. There are transmission lines that can be wireless signals from 4G towers satellites, radios or mobile phones. Transmission lines can be physical too. Examples include fiber optics and cables.
The internet wouldn’t work on hardware alone. It needs protocols, the sets of rules that devices follow to complete a task. If there’s no universal set of protocols that all devices connected to the internet should follow, communication between devices could not occur. The devices would not be able to send data in a meaningful manner or even understand each other. The protocols provide both a common language and the method for devices to use to transmit information.