Karthik Kadambi | Blog

If you live in the SF Bay Area, the Clipper card is your ticket to everything.

Grocery shopping in the US can be done entirely from your phone.

Costco is a US institution.

As an H1B holder, you'll inevitably need to send money back home (e.g., to India) for family, savings, or investments.

The US healthcare system is notoriously complex.

A Health Savings Account (HSA) is one of the best financial tools available in the US if you have a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP).

The 401(k) is the standard employer-sponsored retirement plan in the US.

One of the best values in the US is the Public Library.

When you first move, you likely need a lot of furniture.

Today marks exactly four years since I landed in the United States.

Rent is usually the largest expense for any new immigrant.

The internet isn't a single thing, it's a series of handshakes, lookups, and translations that happen in milliseconds.

Once you've had your BoFA checking account for a few months and your credit score (started by Zolve) is appearing, you can apply for a Bank of America Credit Card.

In today's world, internet is as vital as water and electricity.

In most of the US, a Driver's License (DL) is essential for daily life.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is not just where you get your card; it's a lifelong agency you'll interact with.

USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) is the agency that handles your legal status in the US.

If you don't plan on driving immediately, a State ID is a great way to have a US-issued photo ID without carrying your passport everywhere.

The Social Security Number (SSN) is your primary identifier for almost everything in the US—from getting paid to opening bank accounts and renting.

If you are living in Northern or Central California, PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) will likely be your utility provider.

Bank of America (BoFA) is often the preferred choice for new H1B arrivals because they are generally more accommodating to those without an SSN yet.

Finding a place to live is one of the most stressful parts of moving.

Communication is the first thing you need after landing.

When moving to the US, one of the biggest "chicken and egg" problems is credit history.

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the postal service of the Internet.

The primary driver for IPv6 was the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.

WebSockets is a communication protocol that provides full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection.

Caching is the process of storing copies of data in a temporary storage location (a cache) so that future requests for that data can be served faster.

A proxy server acts as a gateway between you and the internet.

Load balancing is the process of distributing incoming network traffic across a group of backend servers, also known as a server farm or server pool.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.

A firewall is a security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on IP networks.

Network Address Translation (NAT) is a method used to remap one IP address space into another.

Inside homes, offices and data centers, most communication does not go directly to the internet.

IP addresses tell us where a device is on a network.

An IP address identifies a device on a network logically.

Ports and Protocol Numbers Explained.

Most people learn TCP first because it handles reliable delivery.

TCP and IP are the two most critical protocols that define how data moves across the internet.

As 2025 comes to a close, I find myself sitting with a profound sense of gratitude.

HTTP/3 is the newest version of the HTTP protocol.

HTTPS is simply HTTP running inside a secure TLS connection.

When you enter a password or make an online payment you are trusting the website to keep your information safe.

Every time you open a web page your browser talks to a web server using a protocol called HTTP.

Everything that travels across the internet moves in small pieces called packets.

Every website begins with a domain name.

A website needs a place to store files, images, code, and databases.

Every website on the Internet is hosted on a server that has an IP address.