Lecture №8 Internet technologies.

Plan:
1. Basic concepts Internet. The universal identifier of resources (URI), its assignment and
components.Service DNS.
2. Web technologies: HTTP, DHTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
3. E-mail. Message format.
4. SMTP, POP3, IMAP protocols.

Aim of the lecture: Introduce Internet to the student, to provide an introduction to the e-
mail.

Having studied this session the student will be able to:

Define what Internet is
List facilities/benefits of Internet
Describe the ways to connect to Internet
Create and use an e-mail account
Describe the security and risks involved in Internet

1. Basic concepts Internet. The universal identifier of resources (URI), its assignment
and components.Service DNS.
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a form of URI and is a standardized naming
convention for addressing documents accessible over the Internet and Intranet. An example of a
URL is http://www.computerhope.com, which is the URL for the Computer Hope website.
Overview of a URL
Below is additional information about each of the sections of the http URL for this page.

http://
The "http" stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and is what enables the browser to know
what protocol it is going to use to access the information specified in the domain. After the http
is the colon ( : ) and two forward slashes ( // ) that separate the protocol from the remainder of
the URL.
Tip: A URL is not explicit to HTTP addresses; HTTPS, FTP, TFTP, Telnet, and other
addresses are also considered URLs and may not follow the same syntax as our example.
www.
Next, www. stands for World Wide Web and is used to distinguish the content. This portion
of the URL is not required and many times can be left out. For example, typing
"http://computerhope.com" would still get you to the Computer Hope web page. This portion of
the address can also be substituted for an important sub page known as a subdomain. For
example, http://support.computerhope.com forwards you to the main help section of Computer
Hope.
computerhope.com
Next, computerhope.com is the domain name for the website. The last portion of the domain
is known as the "domain suffix", or TLD, and is used to identify the type or location of the
website. For example, .com is short for commercial, .org is short for an organization, and .co.uk
is the United Kingdom. There are dozens of other domain suffixes available. To get a domain,
you would register the name through a domain registrar.
 /jargon/u/
Next, the "jargon" and "u" portions of the above URL are the directories of where on the
server the web page is located. In this example, the web page is two directories deep, so if you
were trying to find the file on the server, it would be in the /public_html/jargon/u directory. With
most servers, the public_html directory is the default directory containing the HTML files.
url.htm
Finally, url.htm is the actual web page on the domain you're viewing. The trailing .htm is the
file extension of the web page that indicates the file is an HTML file. Other common file
extensions on the Internet include .html, .php, .asp, .cgi, .xml, .jpg, and .gif. Each of these file
extensions performs a different function, just like all the different types of files on your
computer.
● See our index.htm definition for additional information about this important file.
Tip: As you may have noticed the protocol, domain, directories, and files are all separated
by forward slashes ( / ).
What characters are not allowed in a URL?
Most people realize that a space is not allowed in a URL. However, it is also important to
realize, as documented in RFC 1738, the URL string can only contain alphanumeric characters
and the !$-_+*'(), characters. Any other characters that are needed in the URL must be encoded.
Understanding more complex URLs and parameters
When a URL points to a script that performs additional functions, such as a search engine
pointing to a search results page, additional information (parameters) is added to the end of the
URL. Below is additional information about a URL that points to the Computer Hope Search
page, with the search query of "example search".
http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=example%20search
In this URL, the script file being pointed to is search.cgi in the cgi-bin directory. Because
this file ends with .cgi, it is assumed to be a Perl script.
After the script file name is a ? (question mark). The question mark in a URL separates the
URL from all the parameters or variables that are being sent to the script. In the above example,
the parameter being sent is q=example%20search. The "q" is a variable name, and the
"example%20search" is the value being sent to that variable. Because no spaces are allowed in a
URL, the space has been encoded as %20. In many scripts, a + (plus) is also used to represent a
space.
In our example, because there is a variable the script would use it as it is executed. Scripts
are also not limited to only one variable. If the script needs multiple variables, each variable can
be separated with an & (ampersand) as shown in the example below.
http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=example%20search&example=test
In the above example, there are two different variables. The "q" variable equals "example
search" and the "example" variable equals "test". If the script was looking for an example
variable, it could be processed and perform an additional feature.

URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. This is a standard address format that constitutes
a reference to an Internet resource. Each URL starts with a protocol followed by a colon
followed by two slashes.

URLs are case sensitive and do not contain any spaces. URLs or web addresses can be
broken down into various components Access protocol, Service, Server, Domain and the
country.

The structure of the URL is shown in the figure below.

 Figure 25: Structure of the URL

There are several domains available in the web such as:

edu = education institute

com = commercial enterprise
gov = government
org = organization
net = network provider
mil = military

2. Web technologies: HTTP, DHTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Internet Protocols

Internet Refers to Description Internet

Protocol Services

SMTP Simple Mail Transfer A protocol for sending e- Email

Protocol mail messages between
servers

Used by local e-mail clients

POP3 Post Office Protocol to email
version 3 retrieve e-mail from a remote
server over a TCP/IP
connection

FTP File Transfer Protocol This is used to transfer files Transferring

from one host to another host files
over a TCP-based network,
such as the Internet.

HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Defines how messages are World Wide
Protocol formatted and transmitted, Web(www)
and what actions Web
servers and browsers should
take in response to the wide
range of commands.
 HTTPS Hyper Text Transfer Provides authentication of World Wide
Protocol Secure the web site and associated Web(www)
web server and protects
against man-in-the-middle
attacks.

VoIP Voice over Internet This enables people to use Online

Protocol the Internet as the chat(there are
transmission medium for exceptions)
telephone calls.

Table 6: The Internet Protocols

The Internet uses a variety of languages to transmit information from one place to the other.
These languages are called protocols. Using these protocols we can acquire the services from the
Internet. Each protocol has a specific functionality and www is considered to be the largest
service acquired amongst the services provided by the Internet. If we take the above analogy in
the hotel, we have seen in many hotels that even though there are so many dishes available, only
one of these dishes will be popular. Likewise although there are so many services available in the
Internet the most popular dish on the menu is www.
Internet is an interconnection of computer networks all around the world. In other words, it
is the hardware which forms the physical layer to these connections is what we refer to as the
Internet. Hence, the Internet comprises of network of computers, fiber-optic cables, copper wires
and wireless networks. But www is the software which is used to access the information from the
Internet. It consists of files, folders and the documents which are stored in different computers.
Now it is crystal clear to you that the www depends on the Internet to work.

22.1.4 Introducing the Internet buzz words

World Wide Web
WWW is a part of the Internet which functions using HTML. WWW operates under a
protocol called HTTP.
Browser
A browser is a computer software which can be used to view documents on the Internet.
Web browsers interpret HTML code and display images and text.
Search Engine. Search engine is an automated web-site which is programmed to search
specified keywords and give the websites and Internet based documents as a result.
Client. A computer which is capable of receiving the information from the server in the
Internet is called a client. A home PC is an ideal example for this.
Server. Client computers download files in the Internet from the Server. These servers are
directly linked to the internet and consist of a lot of documents.
Domain
The Domain is the top level identification string for a particular server (yahoo.com). There
are various types of domains. It can be categorized using one or more extensions.
FTP
FTP is a standard Internet protocol which refers to the File Transfer Protocol. Using this
protocol we can transfer files from one computer to the other via Internet. This is the simplest
way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. FTP is an application protocol that
uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web page files from their
creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly
used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers.
p.microsoft.com/
HTML
HTML is the abbreviation for Hyper Text Markup Language. The web pages are called
hypertext documents because when you click a word or a picture which is hyper linked you can
go to another location. From there you can jump to another webpage. This is made possible
because HTML allows the document‟s author to embed hyperlinks.
HTTP
HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. HTTP (Hypertext
Transfer Protocol) is the set of rules for transferring files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and
other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. When the browser user enters file requests by
either "opening" a Web file (typing in a Uniform Resource Locator or URL) or clicking on a
hypertext link, the browser builds an HTTP request and sends it to the Internet Protocol address
(IP address) indicated by the URL. The HTTP daemon in the destination server machine receives
the request and sends back the requested file or files associated with the request.
Example URL: http://www.yahoo.com
HTTPS
HTTPS stands for “Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure”. This means that the data
transferred electronically is encrypted and cannot be accessed by unauthorized people. HTTPS
provides authentication of the web-site and related web server which is interacting with thus
protecting against Man-in-the middle attacks.
CSS
1. Short for Cascading Style Sheet, CSS is a concept first created by Håkon Wium Lie in
1994. In December 1996, CSS was made a specification by the W3C and today allows web
developers to alter the layout and appearance of their web pages. For example, CSS may be used
to change the font used in certain HTML element, as well as its size and color. A single CSS file
may be linked to multiple pages, which allows a developer to change the appearance of all the
pages at the same time.
The following box contains a basic example of using CSS code to define fonts, the color of
hyperlinks, and the color of a link when the mouse cursor hovers over it. In this specific
example, we are only changing the HTML tags <a> and <body>, rather than creating any new
class or id selectors.
body {
font: normal 100% "trebuchet ms", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
a{
color: #000000;
}
A:visited {
color: #005177;
}
a:hover {
color: #005177;
}
The CSS code in the box above can be inserted into the head section of a page's HTML
using the following code. However, keep in mind that performing this action only applies these
changes to a single page.
<style type="text/css">
<!--
 above code inserted here
-->
</style>
If you want to use the CSS code on multiple pages, we suggest storing the code in a separate
CSS file and then loading it on every page. For example, the CSS code shown in the first box on
this page can be copied and pasted into a file with the .css file extension.
Tip: A CSS file can be created using any text editor or even Notepad if you're using
Windows.
After the file has been saved, it must linked to in the head of the HTML code using the
<link> tag. The following box shows an example of this element in use.
<link rel="stylesheet" Type="text/css" href="URL or path to css file here">
If you named the file example.css (and it was in the same directory as the HTML file it is
being loaded for), the following would link it.
<link rel="stylesheet" Type="text/css" href="example.css">
CSS3 is the version of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) that replaces CSS2. It introduces a
number of new selectors and properties that allow for more flexibility with page layout and
presentation. Some updates, such as the box-shadow property (which allows a drop-shadow to be
added to an element), allow visual effects to be applied without the need for creating special
images.
Originally developed by Brendan Eich and originally known as LiveScript, the
programming language JavaScript was renamed in 1995. JavaScript is an interpreted client-side
scripting language that allows a web designer the ability to insert code into their web page.
JavaScript is commonly placed into an HTML or ASP file, and runs directly from the web page.
It is utilized to perform tasks such as printing the time and date, create a calendar, or other tasks
that are not possible through plain HTML.
Hello, World! in JavaScript
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<! -- Hide from old browsers
document.write('Hello World!');
// Stop hide -->
</SCRIPT>
Below is an example of a JavaScript implemented into this page that will print the current
time and date. Like all JavaScript files, the user's Internet browser must be capable of viewing
JavaScript and the execution of JavaScript must be enabled. If JavaScript is not enabled, the time
and date will not be visible.
Today is Thu Sep 22 2016 17:16:48 GMT+0600
Tip: See the JavaScript time and date source code to create this feature on your own web
page.
Although JavaScript files are often embedded into the HTML file, users can also save their
JavaScript code in an external file. This file often ends with a .js file extension.

3. E-mail. Message format.

In the previous session we dealt with one of the most important usage of the Internet. We
are going to discuss another here. It is all about the Electronic Mail or simply e-mail.
A person can exchange his/her messages digitally through e-mail. E-mail has so many
similarities with the postal mail. Similar to a postal mail, e-mail too can be sent from anyone but
the mail will be received by the person who owns a particular e-mail address. Of course, you
would have used e-mail to convey messages to a person living in another part of the world. Let‟s
discuss this in detail.
How e-mail works in brief
 The mails you send will be temporarily saved in your mail server. Email servers accept,
forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be
online simultaneously; they need connect only to an e-mail server, to send or receive messages.
Mail server is also used to mean a computer acting as a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) that
isrunning the appropriate software.
Let us see a real world analogy to understand the basics of this connectivity. We have not
dealt the process in deep details here since it would be beyond the scope of this course.
Suppose Amali wants to send a mail to Sanath. Amali sends the mail to the MTA which is
also can be referred to the Mail Server. Then the message is routed from server to server through
the Internet. At last, Sanath receives the message from the Mail Server and reads it (See Figure
25 below).
S
MTP POP3/
IMAP Sanat
h
Amali

MTA MTA

Figure 26: Flow of the E-

mail through the Internet

Using emails
Email address. An Email address has 3 parts in it. If we type an email address, it will be in
the following format.

Eg: username@hostname

1 2 3

1:-The first part identifies the user. Usually case sensitive. 2:-
The @ sign which comes in between

Short for electronic mail, e-mail or email is information stored on a computer that is
exchanged between two users over telecommunications. More plainly, e-mail is a message that
may contain text, files, images, or other attachments sent through a network to a specified
individual or group of individuals. The first e-mail was sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. By
1996, more electronic mail was being sent than postal mail.
E-mail address breakdown
[email protected]
● The first portion all e-mail addresses, the part before the @ symbol, contains the alias,
user, group, or department of a company. In our above example support is the Technical
Support department at Computer Hope.
● Next, the @ (at sign) is used as a divider in the e-mail address; it is required for all SMTP
e-mail addresses since the first message was sent by Ray Tomlinson.
 ● Finally, computerhope.com is the domain name to which the user belongs.
How to send and receive e-mail
E-mail Program
To send and receive e-mail messages, you can use an e-mail program, also known as an e-
mail client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. When using an e-mail client,
you must have a server that stores and delivers your messages, which is provided by your ISP or
in some cases, another company. An e-mail client needs to connect to a server to download new
e-mail, whereas email stored online (see next section) updates automatically when you visit the
site.
E-mail Online
An alternative way of sending and receiving e-mail (and the more popular solution for most
people) is an online e-mail service or webmail. Examples include Hotmail (now Outlook.com),
Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Many of the online e-mail services, including the ones we just
mentioned, are free or have a free account option.
Writing an e-mail
When writing an e-mail message, it should look something like the example window below.
As you can see, several fields are required when sending an e-mail:
● The To field is where you type the e-mail address of the person who is the recipient of
your message.
● The From field should contain your e-mail address.
● If you are replying to a message, the To and From fields are automatically filled out; if
it's a new message, you'll need to enter them manually.
● The CC or Carbon Copy field allows you to send a copy of the message to another e-mail
address, but is not mandatory.
● The Subject Line, although not required, should consist of a few words describing the e-
mail's contents.
● Finally, the Message Body is the location you type your main message. It often contains
your signature at the bottom; similar to a hand-written letter. What makes a valid e-mail address?
There are several rules that an e-mail address must follow to be valid:
● As mentioned earlier, an e-mail must have a username followed by an @ (at sign) which
is followed by the domain name with a domain suffix.
● The username cannot be longer than 64 characters long and the domain name cannot be
longer than 254 characters.
● There should be only one @ sign in an e-mail address.
● The space and special characters: ( ) , : ; <> \ [ ] are allowed. Occasionally, a space,
backslash, and quotation mark work but must be preceded with a forward slash. Although valid,
some e-mail providers do not allow these characters.
● The username and e-mail addresses as a whole cannot begin or end with a period.
● The e-mail must not have two or more consecutive periods.

4. SMTP, POP3, IMAP protocols.

More about E-mailing concepts

E-mail clients
An email client is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email. It is also
referred to as an e-mail reader or a Mail user Agent (MUA). It can refer to any system capable
of accessing the user's email mailbox, regardless of it being a mail user agent, a relaying server,
or a human typing on a terminal. In addition, a web application that provides message
The SMTP Server
When we send an email, our computer connects to our email service‟s mail server. A server
is a centralized computer which manages a specific type of service. An email server for instance,
handles emails. The email server responsible for sending emails is called the SMTP (Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol) server. One SMTP server can pass on the mail to another SMTP server
and relay it to the destination through several hops.

Every email has the sender‟s address (e.g. [email protected]) and the recipient‟s in
the To
Field (e.g. [email protected]). When an email is sent, the email client connects to
the
SMTP server of the sender‟s email service (e.g. mailserver.sendermail.com). The client
transmits the address of the sender, the address of the recipient and the content of the message.
The SMTP server goes to work at locating the whereabouts of the recipient. Using the
recipient‟s mail ID (i.e. [email protected]) it locates the domain name–
e.g.recipientmail.com.
Note:If the recipient‟s mail ID had the same domain name as the sender, then the process
wouldbe simpler. The SMTP server would have transferred the mail to its local outgoing mail
server (POP3 or IMAP).
Each domain name represents a unique Web address, called an Internet protocol (IP)
address. Think of it as postal addresses of the internet. The link between domain names to their
IP addresses is stored in the Domain Name Registry. The SMTP server then contacts the server
where the registry is kept (The DNS Server). The DNS server sends back the address to the
SMTP server.
The SMTP server then proceeds to hand over the email to the SMTP server of the
recipient‟s email service (let‟s call it mailserver.recipientmail.com). This SMTP server checks
and confirms that the mail addressed to [email protected] belongs to it and hands it
over to its counterpart, the POP3 server (or the IMAP server).
The POP3 Server
Post Office Protocol (POP3) servers are the servers that do the job of receiving mails.
Thenumber ‘3’ is the version number of the protocol in use. POP3 servers have mail accounts
(our email IDs). Each mail account is mapped to a username-password combination. Once the
message is handed over to the POP3 server, it is kept and stored in the mail account till the
recipient logs in and checks the mail.
The IMAP Server
An email client connects to the POP3 server and tells it to allow download of the email.
Once downloaded to the local machine, POP3 mailboxes do not retain a copy of the email.
Thus, you cannot check your emails from another PC as it has already been downloaded. To
tack this difficulty, IMAP was introduced. IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol version)
simply retains a copy of the emails on the server. This allows you to access your e-mail from
any location with an internet connection.
Different e-mailing methods
First of all it is essential to know the anatomy of an email message. Basically email
contains 2 parts: the header and the body.
In order to have a better understanding about the emails, let‟s take a real life example. If
you want to send a letter to someone what will you do? Firstly, you‟ll be writing the letter and
then put it into an envelope. Then you‟ll write the recipient‟s name and address on the
envelope, and then post it. The letter you write can be compared to the body and the envelope is
comparable to the header.
Sending an email is very much similar to this scenario but really with more advantages.
You don‟t need a pen and a paper anymore. Documents are exchanged swiftly without any
delays.
But you need a computer, internet connectivity and an email account and the recipient‟s
email address to send an email.
 Questions:
1. What is a „mail server‟? Describe how to send an e-mail between two people.
2. What is an e-mail client? Name two types of e-mail clients with examples.
3. Define the following terms.
SMTP
DNS Server
4. What are the advantages of POP sever and IMAP server?
5. When sending an e-mail what is the difference between CC and BCC?
6. How can you attach a document to your e-mail?
7. List three e-mail etiquettes and give reasons for doing them.
8. What are the three parts of an e-mail address?
9. When creating an e-mail account what is the purpose of typing a given code in the cage
provided?
10. What is the purpose of “inbox” in an e-mail account?

References
1. June J. Parsons and Dan Oja, New Perspectives on Computer Concepts 16th Edition -
Comprehensive, Thomson Course Technology, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc Cambridge,
MA, COPYRIGHT © 2014.
2. Lorenzo Cantoni (University of Lugano, Switzerland) James A. Danowski (University of
Illinois at Chicago, IL, USA) Communication and Technology, 576 pages.
3. Craig Van Slyke Information Communication Technologies: Concepts, Methodologies,
Tools, and Applications (6 Volumes). ISBN13: 9781599049496, 2008, Pages: 4288
4. Utelbaeva A.K.,Utelbaeva A.K. Study guide for lectures on discipline “Computer
science”, Shimkent 2008, 84 pages.