The internet & web design

PhD. program
information & libraries dep.
By
Dr. talal azzuhairi
2009-2010
 First lecture
How does the internet work
 How does the internet work
 Internet Addresses: Because the Internet is a
global network of computers each computer
connected to the Internet must have a unique
address. Internet addresses are in the form
nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn where nnn must be a
number from 0 - 255. This address is known
as an IP address. (IP stands for Internet
Protocol)

Internet Addresses
 The picture above Show two computers
connected to the Internet; your computer with
IP address 1.2.3.4 and another computer with
IP address 5.6.7.8. The Internet is represented
as an abstract object in-between.
 If you connect to the Internet through an
Internet Service Provider (ISP), you are
usually assigned a temporary IP address for
the duration of your dial-in session. If you
connect to the Internet from a local area
network (LAN) your computer might have a
permanent IP address

Protocol Stacks and Packets

 So your computer is connected to the Internet

and has a unique address. How does it 'talk'
to other computers connected to the
Internet?
 An example should serve here: Let's say your
IP address is 1.2.3.4 and you want to send a
message to the computer 5.6.7.8. The
message you want to send is "Hello
computer 5.6.7.8!".
 The message must be transmitted over
whatever kind of wire connects your
computer to the Internet
Protocol Stack
 Let's say you've dialed into your ISP from home
and the message must be transmitted over the
phone line. Therefore the message must be
translated from alphabetic text into electronic
signals, transmitted over the Internet, then
translated back into alphabetic text.

How is this accomplished ?
 Through the use of a protocol stack. Every
computer needs one to communicate on the
Internet and it is usually built into the computer's
operating system (i.e. Windows, Unix, etc.)
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

 The protocol stack used on the Internet is

referred to as the TCP/IP protocol stack.
because of the two major communication
protocols used.
 The TCP/IP stack looks like this:


Protocol Layer
 If we were to follow the path that the message
"Hello computer 5.6.7.8!" took from our
computer to the computer with IP address
5.6.7.8, it would happen something like this:



Hallo



Send Steps
 The message would start at the top of the protocol stack on your
computer and work it's way downward.
 If the message to be sent is long, each stack layer that the message
passes through may break the message up into smaller pieces of
data. This is because data sent over the Internet (and most computer
networks) are sent in manageable pieces. On the Internet, these
pieces of data are known as packets.
 The packets would go through the Application Layer and continue to the
TCP layer. Each packet is assigned a port number. Ports will be
explained later, but suffice to say that many programs may be using
the TCP/IP stack and sending messages. We need to know which
program on the destination computer needs to receive the message
because it will be listening on a specific port.
 After going through the TCP layer, the packets proceed to the IP layer.
This is where each packet receives it's destination address, 5.6.7.8.
 Now that our message packets have a port number and an IP address,
they are ready to be sent over the Internet.
 The hardware layer takes care of turning our packets containing the
alphabetic text of our message into electronic signals and
transmitting them over the phone line.
Receive steps
 On the other end of the phone line your ISP has a direct
connection to the Internet. The ISPs router examines
the destination address in each packet and
determines where to send it. Often, the packet's next
stop is another router. More on routers and Internet
infrastructure later.
 Eventually, the packets reach computer 5.6.7.8. Here,
the packets start at the bottom of the destination
computer's TCP/IP stack and work upwards.
 As the packets go upwards through the stack, all
routing data that the sending computer's stack added
(such as IP address and port number) is stripped from
the packets.
 When the data reaches the top of the stack, the packets
have been re-assembled into their original form,
"Hello computer 5.6.7.8!"
Networking Infrastructure

 Now you know how packets travel from one

computer to another over the Internet. But
what's in-between? What actually makes up
the Internet? Let's look at another diagram:
 Definitions
 Modem: Is a device or program that enables a computer
to transmit data over, for example, telephone or cable
lines. Computer information is stored digitally, whereas
information transmitted over telephone lines is
transmitted in the form of analog waves. A modem
converts between these two forms.
 Modem pool: Device contain collections of modems

 ISP port server: Internet Service Provider, a company

that provides access to the Internet. For a monthly fee,
the service provider gives you a software package,
username, password and access phone number.
Equipped with a modem, you can then log on to the
Internet and browse the World Wide Web and USENET,
and send and receive e-mail.
 Router: A device that forwards data packets
along networks. A router is connected to at
least two networks, commonly two LANs or
WANs or a LAN and its ISPs network. Routers
are located at gateways, the places where
two or more networks connect.
 CSU/DSU: Channel Service Unit/Data Service
Unit) is a hardware device about the size of
an external modem that converts a digital
data frame from the communications
technology used on a local area network
(LAN)
 ISP backbone: A collection of wires through
which data is transmitted from one part of a
computer to another

Computer Network Hierarchy

 Every computer that is connected to the Internet is part of a

network, even the one in your home. For example, you may use a
modem and dial a local number to connect to an Internet
Service Provider (ISP).
 At work, you may be part of a local area network (LAN), but you
most likely still connect to the Internet using an ISP that your
company has contracted with. When you connect to your ISP, you
become part of their network. The ISP may then connect to a
larger network and become part of their network. The Internet is
simply a network of networks.
 Most large communications companies have their own dedicated
backbones connecting various regions. In each region, the
company has a Point of Presence (POP). The POP is a place for
local users to access the company's network, often through a
local phone number or dedicated line. The amazing thing here is
that there is no overall controlling network. Instead, there are
several high-level networks connecting to each other through
Network Access Points or NAPs.

The Function of an Internet Router

 All of these networks rely on NAPs, backbones

and routers to talk to each other. What is
incredible about this
 Process is that a message can leave one
computer and travel halfway across the world
through several different networks and arrive
at another computer in a fraction of a second!



 The routers determine where to send
information from one computer to another.
Routers are specialized computers that send
your messages and those of every other
Internet user speeding to their destinations
along thousands of pathways.
 A router has two separate, but related, jobs:
1. It ensures that information doesn't go where

it's not needed.

2. It makes sure that information does make it

to the intended destination.


Routers It makes sure that information does make
it to the intended destination

So how do packets find their way across the
Internet? Does every computer connected to
the Internet know where the other computers
are? Do packets simply get 'broadcast' to every
computer on the Internet? The answer to both
the preceding questions is 'no‘. computer do
not knows where any of the other computers
are, and packets do not get sent to every
computer. The information used to get packets
to their destinations are contained in routing
tables kept by each router connected to the
Internet.
Routers are packet switches
 A router is usually connected between networks to
route packets between them.
 Each router knows about it's sub-networks and
which IP addresses they use.
 The router usually doesn't know what IP addresses
are 'above' it. Examine Diagram 5 below. The
black boxes connecting the backbones are
routers.
 The larger NSP backbones at the top are
connected at a NAP.
 Under them are several sub-networks, and under
them, more sub-networks. At the bottom are two
local area networks with computers attached.

 When a packet arrives at a router, the router
examines the IP address put there by the IP
protocol layer on the originating computer.
 The router checks it's routing table. If the network
containing the IP address is found, the packet is
sent to that network.
 If the network containing the IP address is not found,
then the router sends the packet on a default
route,
 usually up the backbone hierarchy to the next
router. Hopefully the next router will know where
to send the packet.
 If it does not, again the packet is routed upwards
until it reaches a NSP backbone. The routers
connected to the NSP backbones hold the largest
routing tables and here the packet will be routed
to the correct backbone, where it will begin its
journey 'downward' through smaller and smaller
networks until it finds it's destination.

Domain Names and Address
Resolution

 But what if you don't know the IP address of the

computer you want to connect to? What if the you
need to access a web server referred to as
www.anothercomputer.com? How does your web
browser know where on the Internet this computer
lives? The answer to all these questions is the
Domain Name Service or DNS.
 The DNS is a distributed database which keeps track of
computer's names and their corresponding IP
addresses on the Internet.
 Many computers connected to the Internet host part of
the DNS database and the software that allows others
to access it. These computers are known as DNS
servers. No DNS server contains the entire database;
they only contain a subset of it. If a DNS server does
not contain the domain name requested by another
computer, the DNS server re-directs the requesting
computer to another DNS server.

Firewall
 A firewall is simply a program or hardware device
that filters the information coming through the
Internet connection into your private network or
computer system. If an incoming packet of
information is flagged by the filters, it is not
allowed through.
Firewall Methods
 Firewalls use one or more of three methods to control
traffic flowing in and out of the network:
 Packet filtering - Packets (small chunks of data) are
analyzed against a set of filters. Packets that make it
through the filters are sent to the requesting system
and all others are discarded.
 Proxy service - Information from the Internet is
retrieved by the firewall and then sent to the
requesting system and vice versa.
 Tasteful inspection - A newer method that doesn't
examine the contents of each packet but instead
compares certain key parts of the packet to a
database of trusted information. Information traveling
from inside the firewall to the outside is monitored for
specific defining characteristics, then incoming
information is compared to these characteristics. If
the comparison yields a reasonable match, the
information is allowed through. Otherwise it is
discarded.

Firewall Configuration
 Firewalls are customizable. This means that you can
add or remove filters based on several conditions.
Some of these are: IP addresses - Each machine on
the Internet is assigned a unique address called an IP
address. IP addresses are 32-bit numbers, normally
expressed as four "octets" in a "dotted decimal
number." A typical IP address looks like this:
216.27.61.137. For example, if a certain IP address
outside the company is reading too many files from a
server, the firewall can block all traffic to or from that
IP address.
 Domain names - Because it is hard to remember the
string of numbers that make up an IP address, and
because IP addresses sometimes need to change, all
servers on the Internet also have human-readable
names, called domain names. For example, it is
easier for most of us to remember
www.howstuffworks.com than it is to remember
216.27.61.137. A company might block all access to
certain domain names, or allow access only to
 Protocols - The protocol is the pre-defined way that
someone who wants to use a service talks with that
service. The "someone" could be a person, but more
often it is a computer program like a Web browser.
Protocols are often text, and simply describe how the
client and server will have their conversation. The http
in the Web's protocol. Some common protocols that you
can set firewall filters for include:
 IP (Internet Protocol) - the main delivery system for
information over the Internet
 TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) - used to break apart and
rebuild information that travels over the Internet
 HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) - used for Web pages
 FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - used to download and upload files
 UDP (User Datagram Protocol) - used for information that
requires no response, such as streaming audio and video
 ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) - used by a router to
exchange the information with other routers
 SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) - used to send text-
based information (e-mail)
 SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) - used to collect
system information from a remote computer
 Telnet - used to perform commands on a remote computer


Proxy Servers
 A server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser,
and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if
it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the
real server.
Proxy servers have two main purposes:

 Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve

performance for groups of users. This is because it saves the results
of all requests for a certain amount of time. Consider the case where
both user X and user Y access the World Wide Web through a proxy
server. First user X requests a certain Web page, which we'll call Page
1. Sometime later, user Y requests the same page. Instead of
forwarding the request to the Web server where Page 1 resides,
which can be a time-consuming operation, the proxy server simply
returns the Page 1 that it already fetched for user X. Since the proxy
server is often on the same network as the user, this is a much faster
operation. Real proxy servers support hundreds or thousands of
users. The major online services such as America Online, MSN and
Yahoo, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.
 Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests. For
example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its
employees from accessing a specific set of Web sites.
Web servers
 A web site is a collection of web pages. And
web pages are digital files, typically written
using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
For a web site to be available to everyone in
the world at all times, it need to be stored or
"hosted" on a computer that is connected to
the internet. Such a computer is known as a
web Server You can potentially host a web
site on your home computer but this
involves a lot of work and constant
monitoring. It is easier to "buy" web hosting
from a company because there are
thousands that offer this service.
Thank You