Shadowing Practice: Every Networking Concept Explained In 20 Minutes - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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In this video, I'm going to show you the essential networking concepts that every software engineer needs to understand.
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We will follow a simple approach, basically watch how one application grows from a single server to a complex cloud system
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and learn each networking concept exactly when it becomes necessary.
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So meet Travel Buddy.
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This is going to be our imaginary travel booking website.
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and we will see how its networking needs evolved over time
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and you'll understand why each networking piece exists and how it solves real problems.
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We also created a detailed handout that breaks down everything that I'm going to cover today.
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So make sure to grab it from the link below.
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It's completely free.
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So let's start at the beginning.
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When we first launched Travel Buddy, we had one server running our entire application application.
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Simple, right?
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But immediately we faced our first networking question.
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How do customers actually find our server on the internet?
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Every device connected to a network needs an identifier so that other devices can send data to it.
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And this identifier is called an IP address.
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Think of it like a house address for mail delivery.
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Without it, no one knows where to send anything.
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So our travel body server got a public IP address, which looks like this.
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This means any device on the internet can send a request to this specific number and reach our server.
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Now you may be thinking, do I need to remember numbers like 203,
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0, 100, 13, and 10 to reach a website?
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No, just like you don't memorize phone numbers anymore, we don't memorize IP addresses either.
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And this is where DNS comes in.
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DNS translates easy to remember names into IP addresses.
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So when someone types travelbuddy.com into their browser,
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DNS automatically looks up the IP address that will look like this and connects them to our server.
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DNS works like contacts in your phone.
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not type in the phone number, the actual phone number.
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You just tap on the name, like mom, and your phone finds the actual phone number in the background.
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Just like you type google.com and DNS finds the actual IP address behind that name.
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So now customers can find our server.
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Good.
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But here is the next problem.
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Our single server is now running three different things.
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the website that customers see, a database storing all the booking information, and a payment processing service.
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All three share the same IP address.
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So when the request arrives at our server, how will the server know which application should receive it?
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This is where ports solve our problem.
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Ports are numbered channels on a server, ranging from 1 all the way to 65,535,
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and each application listens on a different port number.
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So let's say this is how we set up our application.
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The website listening on port 80, which is standard for web applications or for a secure connection,
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there is a standard port for secure web application connections on port 443.
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Then we have a MySQL database listening on port 3306.
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That's a standard MySQL port.
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And then we have some custom payment service that we decided to run on port 1990.
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Now, when a customer visits travelbuddy.com, their browser automatically connects to port 80 or 443,
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and the server knows to send the traffic to the web application and not to some other program on the server.
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So think of it like apartment building.
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The building has one street address, that's the IP address, but inside the building, there are different apartment numbers, like the ports.
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Great, so that's taken care of.
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But now, we're growing and a new problem appears.
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Travel Buddy is now handling customer credit cards and some personal information.
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And having everything on one server creates a big security risk for us and for our users.
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Because if a hacker now broke into our server that runs all these applications, they get access to everything.
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To the database, to the payment service, everything.
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So we need to separate things.
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This is called network segmentation.
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And subnets let us divide our network into separate sections.
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Think of it like a hospital that has different floors and wings for different types of patients.
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like maternity ward on one floor, surgery on another to keep things cleanly separated.
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We do the same with our network.
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Let's say our front end servers, which are public facing go in subnet A, with this IP address range,
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application servers going subnet two with this IP address range and database servers go in another subnet.
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So now our network is divided.
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But wait, if the website is in one subnet and the database is in another subnet, how does the website talk to the database now?
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And this is where routing becomes necessary.
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Routing directs traffic between different network segments.
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When the website needs data from the database, the router will determine the path.
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So it's basically like a GPS for network data.
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It figures out how to get from point A to point B.
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But now we have a new problem.
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We've separated things into different areas, but what stops everything from talking to everything else?
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We've created separate rooms, but all the doors are now wide open and unlocked.
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Just because we can route traffic between subnets does not mean we should allow all traffic in all directions.
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And that's where firewalls become necessary.
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A firewall is like a security guard that checks every piece of traffic
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and decides whether to allow it based on rules that we set.
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We have host firewalls that protect individual servers.
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So we put firewall on the database server and create a rule
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that says only accept connections on port 3306 and only from IP addresses in the front end subnet.
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Anything else gets blocked.
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And we also have network firewalls that sit between subnets and filter traffic.
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So we may place one between the internet
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and our frontend subnet with a rule saying allow incoming traffic on port 80 and port 443,
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but block everything else.
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So if we have another program or application running in front of subnet on a different port, it will be blocked right away with this firewall rule.
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So this layered approach means that an attacker has to get through multiple security checkpoints like the network firewall,
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then the host firewall to actually do any damage because security is always layered.
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With firewalls in place, we have now created secure zones in our network.
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But another problem is about to appear.
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Travel buddy is growing fast.
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We now have 50 backend servers in a private subnet for security.
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And these servers have private IP addresses like 10 0 2 5,
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10 0 2 6, 10 0 2 7 and so on.
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So private IP addresses work inside your own network, but they cannot communicate directly with the internet.
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It's like having an internal extension number at the company.
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You can call other extensions inside the building, but you can't dial an extension number from your home phone from outside the building, from your home office.
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But our backend servers do need to reach the internet sometimes to download software updates,
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to connect to external payment APIs maybe, or to send data to third party services.
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So how do we solve this problem?
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Because now we have them secured so that nobody can just directly reach them from internet, they cannot reach internet either.
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And we can't give each server a public IP address because first public IP addresses cost money
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and we need to manage them and we would now need 50 of them.
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Well, that's where NAT or network address translation comes in.
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So NAT basically allows multiple devices with private IP addresses to share one public address when accessing the internet.
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So here's how it works.
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When backend server 10.0.2.5 wants to reach an external website to let's say download updates for a database,
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it sends a request to the net device.
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The net device replaces the private source address with its own public IP address and sends the request out to the internet.
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When the response comes back, the net device remembers all this response is meant for server 10.0.2.5 and sends it to the right place.
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So think of it like a receptionist at an office.
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When an employee needs to make an external call, they go through the company's main phone line.
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The receptionist places the call using the company number and then routes the response back to the correct employee's desk.
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So now all 50 of our backend servers can reach the internet through one public IP address.
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So they remain hidden and protected, no direct access to them from internet, but they can still get what they want from outside.
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At this point, we've built a solid networking foundation, but maintaining all these physical servers is becoming expensive and slow.
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We're spending too much time managing hardware now.
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We have to predict capacity month in advance.
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We have to buy servers, install them, maintain them.
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When we need more capacity, it just takes weeks to set them up.
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So we decided to move TravelBuddy to cloud.
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The cloud means we're renting computing resources instead of owning them.
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So someone else manages the hardware and we can increase or decrease capacity in minutes now instead of weeks.
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But here is an important part.
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The networking concepts we learned do not change.
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We still need IP addresses.
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We still have ports on servers.
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We still have subnets, routing, firewalls, and NAT.
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The cloud just provides these as managed services.
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So in the cloud, we create what's called a virtual private cloud or VPC.
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And this is our own isolated section of the cloud providers network.
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Think of it like renting an office floor in a large office building.
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Other companies are on different floors, but your area is yours.
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Nobody can enter your office, even though they're in the same building.
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Inside our VPC, we create subnets just like before.
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We still have public subnets for things that need internet access and private subnets for things that should be protected.
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We use an internet gateway to connect our public subnets to the internet.
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It's basically like a main entrance to our building.
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We have route tables, which are like signposts
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that tell the data where to go in our network
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and each subnet has a route table
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that directs traffic for private subnets we use net gateway remember
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net from earlier it's the same concept just managed by the
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cloud provider we place a net gateway in a public subnet
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and configure the private subnets to route their outbound internet traffic through it
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so now we have the same secure network architecture we built before
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but running in the cloud with all the benefits of cloud flexibility
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but our application is about to change again
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but before we move on i want to give a huge shout out to polumi for making this video possible
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so you just saw all the infrastructure we built in the cloud the vpc the subnets, the security groups and so on.
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But here's a question.
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How do you actually define and manage all of this infrastructure as code?
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This is where Pulumi really helps because unlike other infrastructure as code tools that use their own domain specific languages,
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Pulumi lets you use the programming languages that you already know like TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, whatever, that you're already using in your tech stack.
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This means you can use your favorite IDE to write infrastructure code with all the features like error checking,
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autocomplete, refactoring, debugging tools that you're already comfortable with.
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And you can write real programming logic instead of being limited by the configuration syntax.
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And here's what's really cool.
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Pulumi just launched Pulumi Neo, which is their new agentic AI built specifically for infrastructure.
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Neo understands your entire infrastructure setup, respects your policies, and it can handle complex tasks end-to-end.
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So you can describe what you need in natural language, and Neo will generate the code,
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review your pull requests, and even help you debug deployments with full understanding of your organization's infrastructure.
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Palomi is open source, so you can use it for free.
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But if you want the enterprise features, you can use my code,
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NANA500, and you're going to get $500 worth of credits to test out those enterprise features.
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I will leave the link in the description.
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Now let's continue with the video.
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As travel buddy grows, our application becomes more complex.
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So we have more services, more dependencies, more things to install and configure.
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And we also move to microservices architecture to make our application or scalable.
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And managing our deployments is actually becoming more and more complex.
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And we're increasingly running into it works on my development laptop, but not on the production server issues.
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And this is where containers solve our problem.
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A container packages everything an application needs, the code, the runtime, all the libraries and settings into one portable package.
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So think of it like the difference between a food truck and a restaurant.
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With a food truck, everything is already inside.
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Just drive it somewhere and start cooking and serving your food.
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Whereas restaurant, you have to find a place
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and you have to set everything up and it's really difficult to move location
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because you have everything tied up in that one restaurant.
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So we use Docker to containerize all of the travel buddies services.
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And now we can run the same container on a developer's laptop, on our test servers, in production, and it works almost identically every time.
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But containers introduce new networking concepts that you need to understand.
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When you run containers on a server, they need to talk to each other.
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Docker creates something called a bridge network, a private network that exists only on that server.
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connected to the same bridge network can actually communicate with each other using just the container names, but containers have their own private networking inside them.
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When our payment service container runs, it might listen on port 1990, for example, inside the container.
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So the question is how do external requests then reach that application running inside the container on port 1990?
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Well, we need to map the containers internal port to a port on the host server.
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So docker run command has a parameter that lets you bind
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or map the port inside container to your host or server's port number.
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So this tells docker take all the traffic
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that arrives on this host server on port 1990 and forward it to port 1990 inside the container called payment.
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Notice this is similar to the net concept that we learned earlier.
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We're translating addresses and ports to bridge between two different networks.
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Now, as we grow even more and we run containers on multiple servers now, because one server is not enough to run all our containers,
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before all our microservices, we need them to communicate with each other across servers, not just on a single server.
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So Docker's overlay network creates a virtual network that spans multiple hosts,
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making containers on different servers appear as if they were on the same network.
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So now with Docker, we've made our application portable and consistent.
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But now we're facing a new challenge, which is managing hundreds of containers, which is absolutely quickly achieved when you have microservices application
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that is running in multiple replicas or copies of the same service for scalability and performance.
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And our travel buddy is successful, so we're running hundreds of containers across dozens of servers.
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And managing this manually is becoming impossible.
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Like which server should a new container run on?
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What happens when a container crashes?
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How do you troubleshoot when something goes wrong when you have hundreds of containers?
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How do you even know that a container crashed
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when you have hundreds of them how do containers find each other
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when they keep moving around from one server to another
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and this is where kubernetes comes into the picture
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so kubernetes automates container management think of it like an automated building manager
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that assigns apartments ensures everything is running and handles maintenance in kubernetes the basic unit is a pod.
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A pod is a group of one or more containers that work closely together.
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Usually it's just one container per pod and each pod gets its own IP address.
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So think of a pod like an apartment unit.
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The apartment has one address and everyone living in that apartment shares that address.
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So all the containers inside a pod will share that same IP address.
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But here's the problem pods are temporary kubernetes can create a
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pod destroy it move it around create a new one at any time
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when you do an update maybe a pod crashed maybe you were updating a version of the application
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and each time kubernetes creates a new pod
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that pod gets a new ip address so
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if our website pod is trying to connect to our database pod
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and the database pod gets recreated with the new ip address
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the website pods connection breaks and pods are ephemeral
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so we shouldn't rely on them being around for a long time
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so how do we solve this problem well this is where
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kubernetes services help us a kubernetes service provides a stable ip address
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and dns name that never changes even as pods behind it come
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and go so we create a service for each of our pods like our database pods
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and service gets a permanent IP address and a DNS name like database service.
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So now when our website pod needs to connect to the database, it connects to database service instead of connecting to a pod directly.
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And the service automatically forwards the connection to one of the healthy active database pods.
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If a database pod dies in the background and gets replaced with a new one, the service automatically updates.
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And the website pod does not notice anything.
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It's still connecting to the same database service.
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It doesn't know what even happened in the background.
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So think of it like a department phone number at a company.
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You call the sales department number and it rings at someone's desk.
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The person might change, but the department number stays the same and there will always be someone who will answer the phone.
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And this is crucial in Kubernetes because pods are constantly being created and destroyed and services provide the stability that we need.
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Now we need to expose our application to the internet.
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We have multiple services running inside our cluster.
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So we need to think how do external users actually reach our applications running inside the cluster?
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Well, we use something called Ingress.
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So Kubernetes Ingress is like a reception desk that routes visitors to the right department based on what they're asking for.
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So a single Ingress can handle all incoming traffic into the cluster
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and route it to the correct service inside the cluster based on the rules that we configure.
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For example, we can say all the requests coming to travelbuddy.com go to website service.
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All the requests coming to travelbuddy.com slash API slash booking go to the booking service.
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Slash API slash payment request to that URL go to the payment service.
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So let's recap what we learned by following Travel Buddy's journey.
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We learned five basic foundational concepts of networking.
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First of all, every device needs a unique identifier, which is an IP address, so others can find it and talk to it.
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And DNS then translates human-friendly names to these IP addresses.
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Second, multiple applications on the same server need different doors to listen on so that traffic goes to the right application.
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So that's the concept of ports.
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We need network segmentation where we divide networks into separate sections
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or subnets for security and organization and routing then connects these sections.
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We also need security in order to control what traffic is allowed between different network segments and to different ports.
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So we need firewall concept for that.
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And finally, when we secure our backend applications within private networks, We need them to still reach the internet directly.
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So NET acts as a gateway, translating their private addresses to a shared public IP address to allow communication to the internet.
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So these five concepts are the foundation of networking and whether you are working with physical servers, cloud infrastructure, Docker containers, or Kubernetes pods,
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these principles actually remain the same.
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So the tools change we went from physical routers to vpcs from physical firewalls to security groups
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but the concepts never change so if you master these fundamentals
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and you'll understand those basic networking concepts then you will understand any networked system
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and you'll be able to troubleshoot optimize applications at any scale now
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if this was helpful then share it with one friend
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or colleague that you know will benefit from this video thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Every Networking Concept Explained In 20 Minutes”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: server, container, port, pod, application. This video has 275 sentences and 3500 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:20. The speaker talks at a natural 150 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| container noun | /kənˈteɪ.nəɹ/ | An item in which objects, materials or data can be stored or transported. |
| subnet noun | The abstraction of a sequence. | |
| firewall noun | /ˈfaɪ(ə)ɹˌwɔl/ | A fireproof barrier used to prevent the spread of fire between or through buildings, structures, electrical substation transformers, or within an aircraft or… |
| pod noun | /ˈpɑd/ | A seed case for legumes (e.g. peas, beans, peppers); a seedpod. |
| docker noun | /ˈdɑkɚ/ | One who performs docking, as of tails. |
| gateway noun | /ˈɡeɪtˌweɪ/ | A passage that can be closed by use of a gate. |
| translate verb | /tɹænzˈleɪt/ | To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another. |
| cluster noun | /ˈklʌstɚ/ | A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other. |
| configure verb | /kənˈfɪɡə(ɹ)/ | To set up or arrange something in such a way that it is ready for operation for a particular purpose, or to someone's particular liking |
| identifier noun | Someone who identifies; a person who establishes the identity of someone or something. | |
| microservice noun | A small independent process that communicates with other processes, used to break down a complex task into many simpler components. | |
| divide verb | /dɪˈvaɪd/ | To split or separate (something) into two or more parts. |
| automate verb | /ˈɔ.təˌmeɪt/ | To replace or enhance human labor with machines. |
| memorize verb | /ˈmɛm.əˌɹaɪ̯z/ | To fully learn so as to have entirely available to the memory; to learn by heart, commit to memory. |
| receptionist noun | /ɹɪˈsɛp.ʃə.nɪst/ | An employee (such as a secretary) who works in reception (receiving visitors and/or calls) for a person or business, especially an office. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do customers actually find our server on the internet?
- We're spending too much time managing hardware now.
- It's basically like a main entrance to our building.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is called · are numbered · is divided |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | servers, which are · tables, which are · Neo, which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | We've separated · We've created · have now created |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, we've, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: receptionist /ɹɪˈsɛp.ʃə.nɪst/, troubleshoot /ˈtɹʌbl̩ˌʃuːt/, foundational /faʊnˈdeɪ.ʃə.nəl/, configuration /kənˌfɪɡ.əˈɹeɪ̯.ʃən/, shout /ʃaʊt/
- Long words — get the stress right: receptionist /ɹɪˈsɛp.ʃə.nɪst/, ephemeral /ɛˈfɛ.mə.ɹəl/, foundational /faʊnˈdeɪ.ʃə.nəl/, identically /aɪˈdɛntɪkəli/, dependency /dɪˈpɛndənsi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like container, subnet, firewall.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.