Technology

in Action
Alan Evans • Kendall Martin
Mary Anne Poatsy

Eleventh Edition

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Technology in Action

Chapter 13
Behind the Scenes: How the Internet Works

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Inner Workings of the
Internet
• Management of the Internet
• Internet Networking, Data Transmission and
Protocols
• Internet Identity: IP Addresses and Domain Names

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Topics
• Inner Workings of the Internet
– The Management of the Internet
– Internet Networking, Data Transmission, and
Protocols
– Internet Identity: IP Addresses and Domain
Names
• Coding and Communicating on the
Internet
– HTML, XML, and Other Web Building Blocks
– Communications Over the Internet

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 4

 Management of the Internet
• Ownership of the Internet
– Local networks are owned by
• Individuals
• Universities
• Government agencies
• Private companies
– Infrastructure (high-speed data lines) is
owned by
• Government entities
• Privately held companies

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 5

 Management of the Internet
• Management of the Internet
– Nonprofit organizations and user groups
• Each have a specialized purpose
• Previously handled by U.S. government
contractors
• Paying for the Internet
– National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Pays for large part of infrastructure
– Other countries participate as well

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 6

 Internet Networking
Internet Data Routes
• How computers are connected to the
Internet(a “network of networks”)
– Main paths known collectively as Internet
backbone
• How Internet service providers (ISPs)
communicate
– Backbone is high-speed fiber-optic line known
as an optical carrier (OC) line
– Range of speeds
– Bandwidth needs determine what line is used
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 7
 Internet Networking
Internet Data Routes

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8

 Internet Networking
Internet Data Routes
• How ISPs connect to each other
– Internet exchange point (IXP)
– Made up of one or more network switches
– Can reduce costs and improve speed and
efficiency of data exchange
• How individuals connect to an ISP
– Point of presence (POP)
– ISPs maintain multiple POPs throughout the
geographic area they serve
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 9
 Internet Networking
Internet Data Routes

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 10

 Internet Networking
Network Model of the Internet
Client/server model
• Clients are
• Computers, tablets, smartphones
• Clients use browsers to request services
• Types of servers
• Web servers
• Commerce servers
• File servers

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 11

 Data Transmission
and Protocols
• Network follows standard protocols to
send information
• Protocol is a set of rules for exchanging
electronic information
- Anyone can communicate using same
protocol
– Common Internet tasks follow same protocols
– Open systems vs Proprietary systems

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 12

 Data Transmission
Circuit Switching
– Used since early days of telephone
– Dedicated connection is formed between two
points
– Connection remains active for duration of
transmission
– Important when order of receiving information
is critical
• Not used to connect two computers
– Inefficient when applied to computers

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 13

 Data Transmission
Packet Switching

• What computers use to communicate

– efficient
– Data is broken into smaller chunks (packets)
– doesn’t require a dedicated communications
circuit

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 14

 Data Transmission
Packet Switching
Packets are sent over various routes at same time
– They are reassembled at the destination by
receiving computer
– Data can still travel to destination if a node is
disabled or destroyed
 Routers monitor traffic and decide most
effective route for the packet
 Windows utility tracert shows details of exact
route request takes to destination server

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 15

 Data Transmission
Packet Switching

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 16

 Data Transmission
Packet Switching

• Packets contain:
1. An address to which the packet is being
sent
2. The address from where the packet
originates
3. Reassembly instructions, if the original data
is split between packets, and
4. The data that’s being transmitted

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 17

 Data Transmission
TCP/IP

• Protocol the Internet uses for transmitting

data
– Main suite of protocols is TCP/IP
• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
• Internet Protocol (IP)
– Consists of many interrelated protocols

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 18

 Internet Identity
IP Addresses
• Each device connected to Internet
required to have a unique number
– Called the IP Address
• Domain names are word-based IP
addresses

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 19

 Internet Identity
Domain Names

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 20

 Internet Identity
IP Addresses
Typical IP address: 197.169.73.63
• Dotted decimal number (dotted quad)
– Binary form is
11000101.10101001.01001001.00111111
• Referred to as an octet
– Considered 32-bit numbers
– Can represent 4,294,967,296 values

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 21

 Internet Identity
IP Addresses
• How computer gets IP address (either/or)
– Static
• IP address never changes
• Assigned by network administrator or ISP
– Dynamic
• IP address is temporary
• Assigned from pool of addresses
• More common

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 22

 Internet Identity
Domain Name System

• How computer knows IP address of

another computer
– Computer converts URL to IP address by
consulting database on domain name system
(DNS) server
– Functions like a phone book for the Internet
– Root DNS server: knows location of DNS
servers that contain master listings for TLD

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 23

 Internet Identity
Domain Name System

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 24

 Coding and Communicating on the Internet

• Special languages are used

– HTML
• As well as special protocols
– HTTP
• Helps facilitate communication between
computers using different system and
application software

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 25

 HTML
• Not a programming language
• Set of rules for marking blocks of text
• Surrounded by pairs of HTML tags
• Tags and text referred to as an element
• <b><i>This should be bolded and
italicized.</i></b>
• HTML5 is current version
• Use of cascading style sheets
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 26
 CSS

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 27

 XML

• XML is different from HTML

– eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
describes what data is rather than how it is
displayed
– Users build markup languages to
accommodate data formats and needs
– Provides method of data validation through
XML schema diagrams (XSD)

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 28

 Web Browser Protocols

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

created for transfer of hypertext
documents
– Hypertext documents have text that is linked
to other documents or media
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
(HTTPS) ensures data security

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 29

 Server-Side Applications

• Popular server-side programming choices

– Execute on the server
– Give web page more sophisticated
capabilities
– CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
– ASP.NET (Active Server Pages)

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 30

 Client-Side Applications

• Client-side applications
– Program that runs on client computer
– Requires no interaction with web server
– New data is only sent in response to a
request
– Exchange of data can make interactivity
inefficient and slow
– More efficient on local computer

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 31

 Client-Side Applications
• HTML embedded scripting language tucks
programming code directly in HTML tag
– Most popular is JavaScript
• Scripting technologies
– Dynamic HTML (DHTML) combines HTML,
cascading style sheets, and JavaScript
– Creates lively and interactive websites
– Allows web page to change after loaded
– Occurs in response to user actions

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 32

 Client-Side Applications

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 33

 Communications Over the Internet
E-Mail
• Invention of e-mail
– Ray Tomlinson (1971) helped develop
ARPANET (precursor to the Internet)
– Enables users to leave text messages for
each other on a single machine
– Extended to sending text messages between
machines on Internet
– Became the most popular application
– 1973: Accounted for 75% of all data traffic

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 34

 Communications Over the Internet
E-Mail
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
sends e-mails along the Internet
– Passes through several e-mail servers
• Sending files as attachments
– Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(MIME) specification created to send files
– E-mail sent as text, but MIME handles
encoding and decoding of files

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 35

 Communications Over the Internet
E-Mail

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 36

 Communications Over the Internet
Encryption
• Email is highly susceptible to being read
– It is sent in plain text
– Copies might exist on numerous servers
– Encryption helps protect sensitive messages
• The two basic types of Encryption are
private key and public key.

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 37

 Communications Over the Internet
Instant Messaging
• What you need to run instant messaging
– Client program that connects to an instant
messaging (IM) service
• How instant messaging works
– Client software makes connection with chat
server
– Provides connection information to your
device
– Server isn’t involved in chat session
– Chatting takes place between two devices.
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 38
 Communications Over the Internet
Instant Messaging

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 39

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.