History of the Internet

Mid 1960s During the Cold War need for bomb proof communications system. Government Agency and few Universities Emergency military communications system operated by Department of Defenses Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) ARPANET system Eventually all Universities with defense related projects connected to ARPANET Military pipeline and communication tool for scientists. ARPA transferred to National Science Foundation. Years later businesses began using the internet and the administrative responsiblilities were again transferred. No one party operates the internet, but there are several entities that oversee the system and the protocols involved

A Basic Guide to the Internet

What is the Internet ?
Network of Networks Computers communicate over the internet using TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) Client / Server Architecture

Funding the Internet

Funded through Agencies ( National Science Foundation, Government agencies pay for some high speed backbones)

Underlying Architecture of the Internet Who Runs the Internet overseen by a variety of groups to
establish standards
Internet Society (A private non-profit organisation)

IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) TCP/IP W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) MIT Private Companies oversee the registering of Internet Domains.

We are going to look at the following Architectures How computers send data across the internet How TCP/IP works How Internet Addresses and Domain Names Work How Routers Work How Computers send data across the Internet TCP/IP Hubs Bridges Gateways Repeaters Routers

How Computers Send Data

TCP breaks the data into packets Computer sends those packets local Network, Internet Service Provider (ISP), or On-Line Service Packets then travel through many levels of networks, computers, and communication lines before reaching their final destination. Variety of hardware transmits the data between various networks. Five most important pieces of hardware are: Hubs used to link groups of computers to one another and let computers communicate with each other. Bridges Links one LAN with another LAN Gateways like Bridges but allow communication between different types of networks Repeaters - when data travels over long distances, the signal sending the data can weaken over long distances, repeaters are used to amplify the data at intervals Routers come into play when data is being sent between two different networks. It examines packets for destination and selects the quickest route taking into account traffic on the internet.

How TCP/IP Works

The Internet is a packet switched network Messages broken into a number of packets + data to help the packet find its way through the Internet (TCP) Series of switchs called routers (IP) ensure that the packages arrive at their correct destination Packets are sent over many different routes at the same time Hardware restriction data broken into packets of 1,500 bytes each. Packet given header with order of packet & checksum (based on the amount of data in packet) Each packet is put into separate IP envelopes, which contain addressing information telling the Internet where to send the packet IP envelopes contain headers that contain information: Senders Address Destination Address Amount of time packet should be kept

As packets sent across Internet, routers examine IP envelope destination addresses and determine the most efficient route for sending each packet. (Packets can arrive out of order) Packets arrive at their destination and TCP calculates the checksum for each packet (error checking) When all noncorrupt packets arrive at their destination TCP assembles them into their original form Winsock software (TCP/IP stack or Socket) serves as an intermediary between the Internet and PC Two ways to connect to the Internet and use the TCP/IP protocol Direct connection (via LAN, cable modem, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) line needs a network card & hardware driver) Dialing connection (Modem) Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)

Sample Internet Connections

The basic idea of communication via the internet is to have two remote sites or computers connected together via a network or transmission line

Internet Addresses and Domain Names

The heart of how the Internet works is the Domain Name System (DNS), the way in which computers can contact each other and do things such as e-mail or display web pages. If a user wants to contact a specific location e.g. visit Web pages they type in the address (URL) www.computing.dcu.ie While numbers are convenient for machines, they are not for human beings, therefore humans use names for addresses and TCP/IP uses the DNS (Domain Name System) application (Name Servers) to provide name-to-address translation. The DNS translates the plain english address into a series of numbers called an IP address, 136.2.6.11.XXX An IP address marks the location on the internet similar to a house number and street address. All computers connected to the Internet must have an IP address.

Two types of IP address exist

Static IP Addresses Dynamic IP Addresses

Dynamic IP Addresses
DHCPDISCOVER DHCPOFFER DHCPREQUEST DHCPPACK

DHCP Server

Domains can be organised in hierarchy

Major Domains and minor domains www.computing.dcu.ie .ie is the major domain .dcu is the Dublin City University Domain .computing is the computer applications server Some Common Major Domain Names in the United States are: .edu for educational institution, usually a university .com for a commercial business .gov for a government department or agency .mil for a military unit .org for a non-profit organisation

As networks in other countries were connected to the Internet, they were assigned their own domain names ie Ireland ca Canada au Australia uk United Kingdom de Germany In total there are more than 250 top-level domain names The IP address is a 32 bit number but is now being expanded to a 128 bit number to allow for more IP addresses to be accommodated. Since networks vary in size, there are four different address formats or classes to consider when applying for a network number: Class A addresses are for large networks with many devices. Class B addresses are for medium-sized networks. Class C addresses are for small networks (fewer than 256 devices).

Following introduced to reduce the load on .com domain. Not all are in use yet but they officially registered.
.areo .biz .museum .pro for aviation industry for business for museums for professionals .info .coop .name for general use for cooperatives for individuals

The IP address is usually made up of two parts, 1st part identifies the network, the 2nd the node (host or actual computer). An IP address is expressed as four decimal numbers (octets), each representing eight bits, separated by periods. The first few bits of each IP address indicate which of the address class formats it is using. The address structures look like this: 130.5.5.25 Each of the decimal digits represents a string of four binary digits. Thus, the above IP address really is this string of 0s and 1s: 10000010.00000101.00000101.00011001 Class A 0 Network (7 bits values 1-126) Local address (24 bits, 3 remaining octets used to identify host) Class B 10 Network (14 bits first octet 128-191 + second octet used to identify network) Local address (16 bits, 2 octets used to identify host) Class C 110 Network (21 bits, first octet 192-223, 1st , 2nd and 3rd octet identify network) Local address (8 bits, 1 octet identifies host)

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

URLs uniquely identify each file on the web by specifying its name, what server it is on, and where it resides in the servers directory structure and how the page can be accessed. http://www.computing.dcu.ie/NT_Software/index.html The http:// tells the browser which protocol to use to access the web page. In this case the protocol is hypertext transfer protocol. This protocol is the set of rules by which a HTML document is transferred over. Next www.computing.dcu.ie is the name of the Internet host at which the resource is located. Following this you specify a path to a particular directory, in this case you start at the root directory and go down one level to the NT_Software directory. Finally index.html is the file holding the page you seek.

How Routers Work Protocols that may appear in URLs

Protocols Names ftp:// http:// https:// Mailto: News: telnet:// Use File transfer Hypertext Hypertext Secure Sending email Requesting news Remote login Routers are traffic cops of the Internet. They ensure that data gets to its final destination via the most efficient route. Routers check the IP envelopes for the destination address Calculate the best route and then send the package on its way Router sends packet to another router closer to its final destination. This router in turns forwards the packet on to a router closer to the final destination (hops). Each router has to consider factors such as Traffic congestion Number of hops (IP packets carry a segment that holds the max hop count)

Much of the power of browsers is that they are multiprotocol. That is, they can retrieve and render information from a variety of servers and sources.

 Routers have two or more physical ports Input port (routing process run, routing table) Output port (results from the routing process defines with output port the routes the packets should follow) Input queue (holding area for input port, queue capacity exceeded lost data) Routing Table Static simpler and specifies specific paths for packets Dynamic packets can have multiple routes to their final destination (table changes as network conditions change). Two broad type of routing protocols exist Interior (Gateway Routing Information Protocol (IGRP)) Exterior (Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP))