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Chapter 1 Introduction to Internet Programming

Introduction to the Internet
The Internet was created about 40 years ago with the simple objective of allowing disparate
computers to communicate with each other. Today, the Internet has grown into a vast resource
for information and communication. It is the single largest network of computers with a host of
available services.

Other types of networks include intranets and extranets. An intranet utilizes the same protocols
as the Internet and provides many of the same services, such as e-mail and Web pages.
However, an intranet is for use within an organization and access to the information on an

Intranet is restricted to the employees of a given organization.
An extranet is a company intranet that is accessible to users outside the company, such as
vendors, customers, and suppliers. Because part of the intranet is made available to users
outside the company, an extranet requires special security measures.

Architecture of the Internet
The Internet is a network of computers with clients and servers. The primary function of the
Internet is to route the network traffic between computers. When you connect to the Internet,
your computer is only aware of the nodes that are close to it. For example, when you try
connecting to the Microsoft site, your computer does not know which path on the Internet will
connect your computer to the Microsoft site. Instead, your computer knows which is its closest
gateway and forwards the request to it. This gateway might not be able to connect your computer
to the Microsoft site, but it can forward the request to another gateway that does. Gateways are
network points that perform the function of an entrance to another network. Gateways involve the
use of routers. A router determines the next network point to which a packet, or block of data,
should be forwarded towards its destination. A router is connected to two networks and selects a
route to send information. The choice is based on its current understanding of the state of the
networks to which it is connected. If your machine is unable to connect to the Internet, the
problem may be that it does not know a gateway to which it can send the request.

Protocols
A protocol is a set of communication rules. It is a set of standards that ensures various network
programs work together. Protocols exist at several levels in a telecommunication connection.
There are three Internet protocols:
- TCP/IP
- HTTP
- FTP

TCP/IP
TCP/IP, developed by the Department of Defence, is used to connect different networks. TCP/IP
is the underlying protocol that is used for all communication on the Internet. TCP/IP is a two-
layered program. The upper layer, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), manages the
assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted over the Internet and
received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. The lower
layer, Internet Protocol (IP), handles the address part of each packet, ensuring that it reaches the
right destination. Each gateway computer on the network checks this address to see where to
forward the message. Even though some packets from the same message are routed differently
than others, they will be reassembled at the destination.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
HTTP is a set of rules for exchanging files, such as text, graphics, still images, sound, and
moving images, on the Web. HTTP is a protocol that rides on top of TCP/IP. The Web browser is

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an HTTP client that sends requests to the server. When the user enters a URL or clicks a
hyperlink, the browser builds an HTTP request. The browser sends the request to the IP address
indicated by the URL. The destination server receives the request and the requested file is
returned to the browser after it is processed.

FTP
FTP is used to exchange files between computers on the Internet. FTP can be used to download
or upload files. FTP also runs on top of TCP/IP.

Addressing Schemes
With more than a million computers and tens of millions of people logged on to the Internet, there
is an obvious need to find and direct data over the Internet. Internet addresses help you locate
the information you need as well as send messages to the correct location. There are three types
of Internet addresses:
- Server addresses
- Resource addresses
- E-mail addresses

Server Addresses
The address that is used at the machine level to uniquely identify a specific computer is called
the Internet protocol (IP) address. An IP address consists of four sets of numbers, called octets,
which are separated by periods, such as 131.107.1.7 or 131.107.1.240.
However, when you browse the Web, you do not enter server addresses. Generally, you use
something much more intuitive and easy to remember, such as www.microsoft.com. When you
type www.microsoft.com in the Address text box of your browser window, your browser
contacts a Domain Name Server (DNS). The purpose of a DNS is to map the human-readable
domain names to IP addresses. Once your browser has obtained the address, it uses this
number to contact the machine. A DNS can be compared to a telephone book. For example,
when you want to call John Smith, you first have to look John Smith up in the phone book. Once
you have obtained the phone number for John Smith, you can place the call. All the computers
on the Internet are divided into two categories based on either an organization type or a
geographic location.

Organizational domains describe the type or purpose of the organization. The following table
describes some of the common domain names.

Domain Description
COM Commercial organizations
EDU Educational institutions
GOV Government agencies
MIL Military organizations

Organizational domains are continually changing, and there are likely to be many more domain
names types in the future. Geographic domains are two-letter codes, such as US for the United
States, and CA for Canada. The following table lists some country codes.

Code Country
KH Cambodia
AU Australia
FR France
DE Germany

To connect to a resource, such as a Web page on the Internet, you can specify either the IP
address or the domain name of the computer that contains the resource. The domain name of
the computer on the Internet is passed to a domain name server. The server reads the IP

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address of the target computer. It substitutes the IP address for the user-friendly name. As an
example, here are two addresses that refer to the same server:
- www.microsoft.com
- 207.68.156.49
The person who registers the domain name is responsible for choosing the appropriate
organizational category and the classification system. Most domains in the United States use the
organizational naming method. Domains in other countries use the geographic method. The
Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC), under contract to Network Solutions, handles the
registration of domain names.

! Obtain a domain name for an organization
1. Obtain an IP address from an Internet Service Provider. The IP address will come from
a block of addresses that are allocated to the provider.
2. Submit this IP address, as well as the domain name you want, and the technical and
billing information to InterNIC. If the domain name is available, InterNIC assigns it to the
user.

After a domain name is assigned, users can move their Web pages from host to host by notifying
InterNIC. Within a few days of notification, DNS servers all over the world are updated to reflect
the new IP address assigned to the domain name.
An individual or a small company may only need one IP address. However, large companies
need blocks of IP addresses and established sub domains. For example, microsoft.com is a
domain name, and home.microsoft.com is a sub domain of the main Microsoft domain.

Resource Addresses
The Web has become a popular place for storing and displaying all manner of information that
can be accessed by individuals all over the world. The standard Web address is called a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL).
Here is an example of a URL: http://www.msn.com/tutorial/default.html
The first section of a URL corresponds to the protocol of the service you are using, such as
HTTP or FTP. The second section of a URL corresponds to a DNS address that is translated into
a numeric IP address when a request is sent. In the example above, the sub domain name www
appears immediately before the logical domain name, msn.com, in the URL. The owner of the
domain can change the sub domain name. The sub domain name reflects the domain server that
is dedicated for a service. For example, www.microsoft.com, moli.microsoft.com, and
ftp.microsoft.com are within the domain of microsoft.com, but are on different sub domain
servers. The information to the right of the domain name in the address
http://www.msn.com/tutorial/default.html is the path on the server for that particular file. This path
is similar to the path for a file on a personal computer. If the path is omitted, the server provides a
default response based on the protocol used. For example, the default response to an HTTP
request is to send the file named Index.htm or Default.htm. Usually, you can specify the default
response in the server setup.
Some URLs are case-sensitive. The first section of the URL http://www.company.com is not
case-sensitive, but the path and the file name information may be case-sensitive on some
operating systems, such as UNIX. If a URL does not work, verify that you typed it in the same
case as it was provided.

E-Mail Addresses
Once you understand the concept of domain names, understanding an e-mail address is
relatively easy. The organizations that have a LAN and use internal e-mail create e-mail names
based on a naming convention. For example, you use your first name and last initial, or
firstname_lastname. The address must be unique within the organization.

If your organization connects the LAN to the Internet, the organization registers a domain name
such as MyCompany.com. Then, your Internet e-mail address is your organization e-mail
address combined with the domain name of your organization, such as: [email protected]

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If your Internet access is provided through an Internet service provider (ISP) or an online service,
the domain name in the e-mail address is the domain of the ISP or online service.

The file names on some early model computer systems are case sensitive. When you type the
filename, always type exactly the case in which you receive them.

Web Basics
The Web consists of computers on the Internet connected to each other in a specific way
- Web browser
- Web server
- Web page
- Client/Server Architecture

Web browsers is Also called browsers. Its a program used to connect client-side computers to
the Internet.

Web server is special Web server software. Its functionality is a listener to the request made by
client. This Component included in Web server software. It also monitors for messages sent to it
from client browsers

Web page is usually a file with an .htm or .html extension that contains eXtensible Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) tags and text. HTML is the document layout language (not a
programming language). It defines structure and appearance of Web pages. Allows Web pages
to embed hypertext links to other Web pages

Client/Server Architecture
Computers linked to the Internet are categorized as servers or clients. A server is a computer
that provides services to clients. To view a Web page, a client specifies the URL of the files in the
address bar of the browser window. After the URL is specified, the following steps are carried
out:
1. The browser breaks the URL into the following three parts:
Protocol
Server name
File name
2. The browser communicates with the server and translates the server name into an IP
address.
3. The browser forms a connection with the specified IP address.
4. The browser sends a protocol-specific request to the server for the specified file.
5. The server returns the file to the browser.
6. The browser interprets the HTML tags, formats the file, and displays the file in the
browser window.

Static Web Page vs. Dynamic Web Page
Static Web page is the page that its content established at the time page is created. It is Useful for displaying
data that doesnt change often, and for navigating between HTML Web page files

Dynamic Web page is also called an interactive Web page. Its page content varies according to user requests,
time, or inputs.