Internet Services

Using an Internet service is very much like making a telephone call. You start the program (pick up the phone), choose
which remote computer will handle your request (dial the number), and wait for it to do your work (your friend picks up
the phone). A program on the remote computer responds to your request for service (answers the phone in our
analogy). That program sits in the server computer you connect to, waiting for a message from your client computer to
arrive

Ping
It finds the reach of a computer through the internet and back the time it takes in milliseconds.

It is an essential tool in troubleshooting Internet problems, showing the Domain Name Server is working, reachable, and
the time it takes to travel.

Decoding names to network addresses

DNS (Domain Name Server) is “google.com”, Translated into the internet address 142.250.204.78.

Round-trip response time

Time=34ms

Routing hop count

TTL (Time to Live) =118

- DNS is the translator from the machine name to its numeric address.
- A thousandth of a second is equivalent to one ms or millisecond.
- TTL measures the period of time that a data should exist on a computer or network before being discarded.
World Wide Web
Computers runs a client software called a web browser. It transports messages across the internet using
the HTTP or the Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

Page Formatting — Messages sent from the Web server to your Web browser are coded in the
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which defines an embedded structure and a set of codes that tell
the Web browser what the image it displays on your screen should look like.

Hypertext links — Links from one page in your Web browser to another are identified by special codes
in the message from the Web server. When you click on a link, the Web browser sends a request to the
right Web server (possibly one you’ve not communicated with previously) to send it the page data.

Image, movie, and sound links — Web pages can contain images as well as text, using codes that specify
from where to retrieve the image.

Forms — Web pages can contain forms that let you fill in information and send it out to the Web server.
The source code of the Web page specifies how forms are defined for display on your screen, how that
information gets to the Web server, and what processing software on the server will do.

The Web uses a standard specification for addressing servers and information on those servers.

A standard Web address is called a uniform resource locator (URL).

Protocol

Server

File location
File transfer
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the Internet standard protocol to retrieve or send files online. It
operates between a client and a server.

The FTP client is the program that initiates the FTP connection; the FTP server is the program that
receives the connection.

Authenticate Access - FTP implements a username and password authentication scheme and refuses
the connection without a valid login.

Navigate the remote file system – The capability to find files. FTP defines commands and responses
between client and server that report the current directory, change to a different directory, and list the
contents of the current folder.

Set the file type - FTP lets you control whether files are transferred as text or binary, giving the remote
system the information it needs to do its job properly.

Send or Receive Files - FTP transmits files from the client or server and sends one or many files at the
same time.
Electronic mail
The Internet protocol for exchanging electronic mail is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). It
allows the exchange of text mail messages with users on computers connected to the Internet.

Addresses you can mail to are typically like max@ acme.com — there’s the username, an at sign, and
the name of the user’s mail server computer.

Emails can be received at any time; it is best to have it in any device capable of online communication.

SMTP includes primitive operations for the things involved with sending mail:

Validate recipient address — The server verifies that the addressee on the message exists.

Deliver to a user’s mailbox — One computer connects to another and exchanges mail between the two.

Read receipt — You can request receipts when the recipient opens the message you sent.

The worst thing about raw SMTP is that it accepts only text messages, not binary files.

People commonly want to mail arbitrary files, however, and send text that includes fonts, colors, and
other formatting. Three approaches to handling this requirement are common:
User-user encoding (UUE) — used on the Unix system to convert binary files, and to transfer or send
documents and other data in between computers running with the Unix system.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) — allows the users to exchange various types of digital
content such as pictures, audio, video, and various types of documents and files in the e-mail.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) —many electronic mail clients let you compose messages as Web
pages, and allows to format texts and pictures.

Telnet
The client program that lets you connect to a remote computer is Telnet. It allows to log in remote
computers, which Internet Service Providers(ISPs) provides the access to Linux or other UNIX servers.

Newsgroups
The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is the mechanism underneath a worldwide Internet
bulletin board covering nearly any subject you can think of — the Usenet newsgroups.

Both moderated and unmoderated newsgroups exist. The protocol arranges to distribute postings
worldwide; in many ways the newsgroups are the broadest, fastest medium yet devised for spreading
information

You can access the general Internet newsgroups in two ways. If you want to use a program local to your
PC, you’ll need a newsreader client. Microsoft’s Outlook Express functions as a newsreader and is
included with Windows. UNIX systems include a variety of readers.

Alternatively, you can search, read, and post to the newsgroups through the Internet search engines.

Time
An Internet protocol, the Network Time Protocol (NTP), allows the PC get the current time from one of
the servers, as do other forms of time servers.

Instant messaging
It is a type of online messaging that allows real-time text transmission over the Internet or another
computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user
inputs text and triggers a transmission to the recipient(s), who are all connected on a common network.
It happens in real-time, differing from emails that doesn’t require instant response.
Examples:

Discord Meta’s Messenger WeChat Skype

Virus
Viruses can infect your computer several ways, the most popular of which are through infected
removable disks such as USB drives, CD/DVD-ROM/RWs and external hard drives. The other way to be
infected is through the internet.

Advices:

- Careful opening of electronic mail and any other file attachments

- Run antivirus software
- Up-to-date Operating System
- Only downloading files in trusted websites
- Frequent Back-up of data

Worms
A type of malware that spreads copies of itself and actively seek to burrow from computer to computer.
A worm can replicate itself without any human interaction, and it does not need to attach itself to a
software program in order to cause damage.

Advice:

- Actively check for and apply security patches

- Run hardware and software firewalls
- Examine if your system is vulnerable
- Check the file extension
Trojans
Programs that masquerade as other benign or desirable software, but have unadvertised effects.
Appearing to perform one function, but in fact perform another, malicious function. They might be
disguised as free software, videos or music, or seemingly legitimate advertisements.

Advices:

- Running firewall
- Enforcing security options in web browsers
- Running anti-virus and anti-adware

Cracks
It is an activity generally called cracking, using specialized tools to analyze and penetrate your network
from people with sufficient skills to attack your computer.

Advices:

- Consider what you publish

- Removing unnecessary services
- Conduct comprehensive scans
- Security patches and updates
- Frequent Back-up of data

Some of the Worst Computer Viruses

1. MyDoom – about $40B

2. Sobig – about $30B

3. Klez –about $19.8B

4. ILOVEYOU – about $15B

Antivirus and anti-adware software
Antivirus software works by scanning files, looking for patterns characteristic of known viruses. Antivirus
data files define the patterns of the software, so you have to update the data files regularly to make sure
you have the latest patterns.

For political reasons more than technical ones, antivirus software typically doesn’t have the ability to
scan for and reject adware, which includes files called cookies that can help track your Web usage,
software that displays advertising, or programs that report information from your computer back to a
server.

Advices:

- Running adware
- Blocking suspicious sites
- Reading the reviews and commentaries before installing any type of software
- Cautionary of certain websites.

Spam
Spam, or more formally unsolicited commercial e-mail, is electronic mail dumped in your inbox you
didn’t ask for and that, generally, comes from a source you don’t know. Spam is the electronic
equivalent of the junk mail that fills your post box, only it costs the sender far less, clogs the Internet
and your inbox, and is quite often something you’d really rather not see.

- automobile warranties
- debt reduction
- adult videos involving barnyard animals
- mortgage refinancing
- get rich quick schemes
- photos of singles we can date
- adult videos without the barnyard animals but with cheerleaders
- male and female organ enlargement
- health insurance
- pheromones guaranteed to attract others
- mail-order Russian brides, low-cost travel, eBay training
- Viagra, free money
- more adult photos and videos
- improved Web site traffic
- billions of addresses to send spam to
- the fountain of youth
- secret information on anyone
- millions of dollars to be exported from Nigeria
- anti-spam tools
- antivirus tools
- university diplomas
10 tips on how to help reduce spam
By: Microsoft

1. Take advantage of the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 

2. Block pictures in HTML messages that spammers use as Web beacons 

3. Turn off read and delivery receipts and automatic processing of meeting requests

4. Limit the places where you post your e-mail address 

5. Review the privacy policies of Web sites

6. Watch out for check boxes that are already selected

7. Don't reply to spam 

8. If a company uses e-mail messages to ask for personal information, don't respond by sending
a message   

9. Don't contribute to a charity in response to a request sent in e-mail  

10. Don't forward chain e-mail messages