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Chapter-5-The Internet and Its Uses

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104 views17 pages

Chapter-5-The Internet and Its Uses

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a2080903768
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 5: The Internet and its uses

5.1 The internet and World Wide Web (WWW)

The differences between the internet and the World Wide Web (WWW)
5.1 Uniform resource locators
Web browsers (often simply referred to as ‘browsers’) are software that allow users to access and display web
pages or play multimedia from websites on their devices. The browser interprets hypertext mark-up language
(HTML) sent from the websites. Uniform resource locators (URLs) are text addresses used to access websites. A
URL is typed into a browser address bar using the following format:
http and https

Hypertext transfer protocol (http) is a set of rules that must be obeyed when transferring files across the internet.
If some form of security is employed, it becomes https (s = secure) and you may also see a green padlock in the
browser address window.

Web browsers

Browsers interpret (translate) HTML from websites and show the results of the translation (either as a website page
or play multimedia). The main features of a typical browser include:
• a home page and address bar
• the ability to store favourite websites and web pages (bookmarks)
• keeping a history of websites visited (user history)
• the ability to allow the user to navigate forwards and backwards through a website
• allowing many web pages to be open at the same time by using multiple tabs
• making use of cookies
Retrieval and location of web pages
To retrieve pages from a website, a browser needs to know the IP address. A domain name server (DNS) is
used to find the IP address from the domain name in the URL typed into the browser window.

hoddereducation.co.uk/cambridge-igcse-computerscience

into an IP address the computer can understand,

such as: 107.162.140.19

Cookies
Cookies are small files or
code stored on a user’s
computer (permanently or
temporarily). Cookies are
sent by a web server to the
browser on a user’s
computer.
To obtain personal data/details // by example
Displays web pages

……..by rendering HTML


10(e)
Any three from: e.g.
•Storing bookmarks/favourites
•Recording user history
• Allowing use of multiple tabs
•Providing navigation tools // by
example
•Providing an address bar
•Managing protocols // by
example // checking digital
certificate
•Send URL to DNS
•Sends a request to the IP
address/web server (to o
Authentication
Authentication refers to the ability of a user to prove who they are. There are three factors used in
authentication.
• Something you know (for example, a password or PIN).
• Something you have (for example, a mobile phone or tablet).
• Something unique to the user (for example, biometrics).

Passwords are the most common form of authentication (they are often associated with usernames).

Biometrics
Biometrics can be used as a type of password and are based on certain unique human characteristics, such as:
• fingerprint scans
• retina scans
• face recognition
• voice recognition
Two-step verification
Two-step verification requires two methods of authentication to verify who a user is.

Fig: Two-step verification using a mobile phone

Firewalls
A firewall can be either software or hardware. It sits between the user’s computer and an external network (for
example, the internet) and filters information in and out of the computer.

Firewalls are the primary defence to any computer system to help protect it from hacking, malware (viruses and
spyware), phishing and pharming.

Typical firewall se tup


Proxy servers
Proxy servers act as an intermediate between the user and a web server:

Fig: Proxy server

The main features of proxy servers are as follows.


• Filter internet traffic, blocking access to websites if necessary.
• Keep user’s IP addresses secret.
• Can block requests from certain IP addresses

Secure sockets layer (SSL)


Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a type of protocol – a set of rules used by computers to communicate with each
other across a network. This allows data to be sent and received securely over the internet.

The address window in the browser when https protocol is being applied, rather than just http protocol, is quite
different:

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