Week 2 already. This week we leant about the history of the Internet, how it all started in 1957 and has been developing ever since. The internet is a series of computer networks linked together by servers. Internet Protocol (IP) is the process by which these networks are able to talk to each other. This creates a client/server model, where a number of clients are connected to a server and in turn each server becomes a client to a larger server and so it goes. Peer to peer networks also exist where all computers can run an application simultanously. An IP address allows the physical location of the computer to be identified.
We've learnt that messages sent within the Internet are 'packaged' - each message is broken into a number of small parcels that are sent individually throughout the network and re-assembled on arrival at their intended destination. If any pieces go missing, they are re-sent from the original computer.
Bandwidth is the actual measure by which the amount of data can move at any given time. The faster the connection the quicker data can be moved. My computer has a download speed of 16055kbps (2006.9KB / sec transfer rate) and an upload speed of 671kbps (83.9Kb/sec transfer rate). (http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test). What this means was harder to establish as the website did not analyse by speed. My understanding is that I have a fast wireless connection.
We where sent to find our own IP addresses - I googled this and found a video explaining how to do this. It involved connecting to ipconfig which then gave three different addresses. It did identify that I was connected through Bigpond and gave ma an iPv6 address and as well as an IPv4 address, a subnet mask and a default gateway. This last address I recognised from sessions with Bigpond when I have accessed technical support for issues with my connection. Domain Names are alpha interpretations of IP addresses.
Part 2 : Activities
The exercise was to firstly, establish the geographical location of web page hosts. It was interesting to see the connections between the better known website such as Twitter, Facebook and Google. One popular website not hosted in either the US or Australia, is Facebook, which is hosted in Canada.
The second activity was to establish ownership of certain domain names. Google, YouTube and Gooogle are all owned by Google. Yahoo has claim to Yahoo, flickr and Yaho.
The ownership of both Gooogle and Yaho to Google and Yahoo respectively would indicate a protection of their primary sites in the event of deliberate or accidental use of misspelling.
References:
http://hexillion.com/asp/samples/AutoWhois.vbs.asp
http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert/
http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test
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