1)DNS (Domain Name System)

Description: DNS is a hierarchical and decentralized naming system used to resolve

human-readable domain names (like www.example.com) into IP addresses that computers use
to identify each other on the network.

○ DNS stands for Domain Name System.

○ DNS is a directory service that provides a mapping between the name of a host
on the network and its numerical address.

○ DNS is required for the functioning of the internet.

○ Each node in a tree has a domain name, and a full domain name is a sequence of
symbols specified by dots.

○ DNS is a service that translates the domain name into IP addresses. This allows
the users of networks to utilize user-friendly names when looking for other hosts
instead of remembering the IP addresses.

○ For example, suppose the FTP site at EduSoft had an IP address of

132.147.165.50, most people would reach this site by specifying
ftp.EduSoft.com. Therefore, the domain name is more reliable than IP address.

DNS is a TCP/IP protocol used on different platforms. The domain name space is
divided into three different sections: generic domains, country domains, and inverse
domain.
Advantages:

1. Simplifies User Access: Users can access websites using easy-to-remember domain
names instead of numeric IP addresses.
2. Decentralization: The hierarchical structure allows for distributed management and
redundancy.
3. Scalability: Can handle a vast number of domain names efficiently.
4. Flexibility: Supports various types of records (A, MX, CNAME, etc.) for different
purposes.

Disadvantages:

1. Security Vulnerabilities: Susceptible to attacks like DNS spoofing or cache poisoning.

2. Complexity: Managing DNS records can be complex, especially for large organizations.
3. Latency: DNS lookups can add latency to the initial connection time.

Applications:

● Translating domain names to IP addresses for web browsing, email, and other Internet
services.
● Load balancing by distributing traffic among multiple servers.
● Supporting CDN (Content Delivery Network) services by directing users to the nearest
server.
2)Telnet
Description: Telnet is a protocol that allows for remote access to another computer over a
network. It provides a command-line interface for communication with remote devices.

○ The main task of the internet is to provide services to users. For example, users
want to run different application programs at the remote site and transfers a
result to the local site. This requires a client-server program such as FTP, SMTP.
But this would not allow us to create a specific program for each demand.

○ The better solution is to provide a general client-server program that lets the user
access any application program on a remote computer. Therefore, a program that
allows a user to log on to a remote computer. A popular client-server program
Telnet is used to meet such demands. Telnet is an abbreviation for Terminal
Network.

○ Telnet provides a connection to the remote computer in such a way that a local
terminal appears to be at the remote side.

There are two types of login:

○ Local Login

○ When a user logs into a local computer, then it is known as local login.

○ When the workstation running terminal emulator, the keystrokes entered

by the user are accepted by the terminal driver. The terminal driver then
passes these characters to the operating system which in turn, invokes
the desired application program.

○ However, the operating system has special meaning to special

characters. For example, in UNIX some combination of characters have
special meanings such as control character with "z" means suspend.
Such situations do not create any problem as the terminal driver knows
the meaning of such characters. But, it can cause the problems in remote
login.
 ○ Remote login

○ When the user wants to access an application program on a remote

computer, then the user must perform remote login.

How remote login occurs

At the local site
The user sends the keystrokes to the terminal driver, the characters are then sent to the
TELNET client. The TELNET client which in turn, transforms the characters to a
universal character set known as network virtual terminal characters and delivers them
to the local TCP/IP stack
At the remote site
The commands in NVT forms are transmitted to the TCP/IP at the remote machine.
Here, the characters are delivered to the operating system and then pass to the TELNET
server. The TELNET server transforms the characters which can be understandable by a
remote computer. However, the characters cannot be directly passed to the operating
system as a remote operating system does not receive the characters from the TELNET
server. Therefore it requires some piece of software that can accept the characters from
the TELNET server. The operating system then passes these characters to the
appropriate application program.
Advantages:

1. Simplicity: Easy to set up and use for basic remote management.

2. Flexibility: Can be used on various operating systems and network devices.
3. Low Overhead: Minimal bandwidth usage due to text-based communication.

Disadvantages:

1. Lack of Security: Transmits data, including passwords, in plain text, making it

vulnerable to interception.
2. Limited Features: Basic compared to more modern protocols like SSH.
3. Compatibility Issues: Not all modern devices and systems support Telnet due to its
security limitations.

Applications:

● Remote management of servers and network devices.

● Troubleshooting network services and connectivity issues.
● Legacy systems and devices that do not support more secure protocols.

3)FTP

○ FTP stands for File transfer protocol.

○ FTP is a standard internet protocol provided by TCP/IP used for transmitting the
files from one host to another.

○ It is mainly used for transferring the web page files from their creator to the
computer that acts as a server for other computers on the internet.

○ It is also used for downloading the files to computer from other servers.

Objectives of FTP

○ It provides the sharing of files.

○ It is used to encourage the use of remote computers.

○ It transfers the data more reliably and efficiently.

Why FTP?
Although transferring files from one system to another is very simple and
straightforward, but sometimes it can cause problems. For example, two systems may
have different file conventions. Two systems may have different ways to represent text
and data. Two systems may have different directory structures. FTP protocol
overcomes these problems by establishing two connections between hosts. One
connection is used for data transfer, and another connection is used for the control
connection.

Mechanism of FTP

The above figure shows the basic model of the FTP. The FTP client has three
components: the user interface, control process, and data transfer process. The server
has two components: the server control process and the server data transfer process.

There are two types of connections in FTP:

 ○ Control Connection: The control connection uses very simple rules for
communication. Through control connection, we can transfer a line of command
or line of response at a time. The control connection is made between the control
processes. The control connection remains connected during the entire
interactive FTP session.

○ Data Connection: The Data Connection uses very complex rules as data types
may vary. The data connection is made between data transfer processes. The
data connection opens when a command comes for transferring the files and
closes when the file is transferred.

FTP Clients

○ FTP client is a program that implements a file transfer protocol which allows you
to transfer files between two hosts on the internet.

○ It allows a user to connect to a remote host and upload or download the files.

○ It has a set of commands that we can use to connect to a host, transfer the files
between you and your host and close the connection.

○ The FTP program is also available as a built-in component in a Web browser. This
GUI based FTP client makes the file transfer very easy and also does not require
to remember the FTP commands.
Advantages of FTP:

○ Speed: One of the biggest advantages of FTP is speed. The FTP is one of the
fastest way to transfer the files from one computer to another computer.

○ Efficient: It is more efficient as we do not need to complete all the operations to

get the entire file.

○ Security: To access the FTP server, we need to login with the username and
password. Therefore, we can say that FTP is more secure.

○ Back & forth movement: FTP allows us to transfer the files back and forth.
Suppose you are a manager of the company, you send some information to all
the employees, and they all send information back on the same server.

Disadvantages of FTP:

○ The standard requirement of the industry is that all the FTP transmissions should
be encrypted. However, not all the FTP providers are equal and not all the
providers offer encryption. So, we will have to look out for the FTP providers that
provides encryption.

○ FTP serves two operations, i.e., to send and receive large files on a network.
However, the size limit of the file is 2GB that can be sent. It also doesn't allow you
to run simultaneous transfers to multiple receivers.

○ Passwords and file contents are sent in clear text that allows unwanted
eavesdropping. So, it is quite possible that attackers can carry out the brute force
attack by trying to guess the FTP password.

○ It is not compatible with every system.

4)SNMP

○ SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol.

○ SNMP is a framework used for managing devices on the internet.

○ It provides a set of operations for monitoring and managing the internet.

SNMP Concept

○ SNMP has two components Manager and agent.

○ The manager is a host that controls and monitors a set of agents such as
routers.

○ It is an application layer protocol in which a few manager stations can handle a

set of agents.

○ The protocol designed at the application level can monitor the devices made by
different manufacturers and installed on different physical networks.
 ○ It is used in a heterogeneous network made of different LANs and WANs
connected by routers or gateways.

Managers & Agents

○ A manager is a host that runs the SNMP client program while the agent is a
router that runs the SNMP server program.

○ Management of the internet is achieved through simple interaction between a

manager and agent.

○ The agent is used to keep the information in a database while the manager is
used to access the values in the database. For example, a router can store the
appropriate variables such as a number of packets received and forwarded while
the manager can compare these variables to determine whether the router is
congested or not.

○ Agents can also contribute to the management process. A server program on the
agent checks the environment, if something goes wrong, the agent sends a
warning message to the manager.

Management with SNMP has three basic ideas:

○ A manager checks the agent by requesting the information that reflects the
behavior of the agent.

○ A manager also forces the agent to perform a certain function by resetting values
in the agent database.

○ An agent also contributes to the management process by warning the manager

regarding an unusual condition.
Management Components

○ Management is not achieved only through the SNMP protocol but also the use of
other protocols that can cooperate with the SNMP protocol. Management is
achieved through the use of the other two protocols: SMI (Structure of
management information) and MIB(management information base).

○ Management is a combination of SMI, MIB, and SNMP. All these three protocols
such as abstract syntax notation 1 (ASN.1) and basic encoding rules (BER).

SMI

The SMI (Structure of management information) is a component used in network

management. Its main function is to define the type of data that can be stored in an
object and to show how to encode the data for the transmission over a network.

MIB

○ The MIB (Management information base) is a second component for the network
management.

○ Each agent has its own MIB, which is a collection of all the objects that the
manager can manage. MIB is categorized into eight groups: system, interface,
address translation, ip, icmp, tcp, udp, and egp. These groups are under the mib
object.
SNMP

SNMP defines five types of messages: GetRequest, GetNextRequest, SetRequest,

GetResponse, and Trap.

GetRequest: The GetRequest message is sent from a manager (client) to the agent
(server) to retrieve the value of a variable.
GetNextRequest: The GetNextRequest message is sent from the manager to agent to
retrieve the value of a variable. This type of message is used to retrieve the values of the
entries in a table. If the manager does not know the indexes of the entries, then it will
not be able to retrieve the values. In such situations, GetNextRequest message is used
to define an object.

GetResponse: The GetResponse message is sent from an agent to the manager in

response to the GetRequest and GetNextRequest message. This message contains the
value of a variable requested by the manager.

SetRequest: The SetRequest message is sent from a manager to the agent to set a
value in a variable.

Trap: The Trap message is sent from an agent to the manager to report an event. For
example, if the agent is rebooted, then it informs the manager as well as sends the time
of rebooting.

5)HTTP

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol.

○ It is a protocol used to access the data on the World Wide Web (www).

○ The HTTP protocol can be used to transfer the data in the form of plain text,
hypertext, audio, video, and so on.

○ This protocol is known as HyperText Transfer Protocol because of its efficiency

that allows us to use in a hypertext environment where there are rapid jumps
from one document to another document.

○ HTTP is similar to the FTP as it also transfers the files from one host to another
host. But, HTTP is simpler than FTP as HTTP uses only one connection, i.e., no
control connection to transfer the files.

○ HTTP is used to carry the data in the form of MIME-like format.

○ HTTP is similar to SMTP as the data is transferred between client and server. The
HTTP differs from the SMTP in the way the messages are sent from the client to
 the server and from server to the client. SMTP messages are stored and
forwarded while HTTP messages are delivered immediately.

Features of HTTP:

○ Connectionless protocol: HTTP is a connectionless protocol. HTTP client

initiates a request and waits for a response from the server. When the server
receives the request, the server processes the request and sends back the
response to the HTTP client after which the client disconnects the connection.
The connection between client and server exist only during the current request
and response time only.

○ Media independent: HTTP protocol is a media independent as data can be sent

as long as both the client and server know how to handle the data content. It is
required for both the client and server to specify the content type in MIME-type
header.

○ Stateless: HTTP is a stateless protocol as both the client and server know each
other only during the current request. Due to this nature of the protocol, both the
client and server do not retain the information between various requests of the
web pages.

HTTP Transactions
The above figure shows the HTTP transaction between client and server. The client
initiates a transaction by sending a request message to the server. The server replies to
the request message by sending a response message.

Messages
HTTP messages are of two types: request and response. Both the message types
follow the same message format.

Request Message: The request message is sent by the client that consists of a request
line, headers, and sometimes a body.
Response Message: The response message is sent by the server to the client that
consists of a status line, headers, and sometimes a body.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

○ A client that wants to access the document in an internet needs an address and
to facilitate the access of documents, the HTTP uses the concept of Uniform
Resource Locator (URL).

○ The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a standard way of specifying any kind of
information on the internet.

○ The URL defines four parts: method, host computer, port, and path.
○ Method: The method is the protocol used to retrieve the document from a server.
For example, HTTP.

○ Host: The host is the computer where the information is stored, and the
computer is given an alias name. Web pages are mainly stored in the computers
and the computers are given an alias name that begins with the characters
"www". This field is not mandatory.

○ Port: The URL can also contain the port number of the server, but it's an optional
field. If the port number is included, then it must come between the host and path
and it should be separated from the host by a colon.

○ Path: Path is the pathname of the file where the information is stored. The path
itself contain slashes that separate the directories from the subdirectories and
files.