Ans 4.

The domain name system (DNS) is a naming database in which internet domain names
are located and translated into internet protocol (IP) addresses. The domain name
system maps the name people use to locate a website to the IP address that a
computer uses to locate a website. For example, if someone types example.com into a
web browser, a server behind the scenes will map that name to the corresponding IP
address, something similar in structure to 121.12.12.121. Just like the phone book on
our mobile phone, we need to find Manoj, so we write “Manoj”, and we don’t need to
remember his actual number.

Web browsing and most other internet activities rely on DNS to quickly provide the
information necessary to connect users to remote hosts. DNS mapping is distributed
throughout the internet in a hierarchy of authority. Access providers and enterprises, as
well as governments, universities and other organizations, typically have their own
assigned ranges of IP addresses and an assigned domain name. They also typically run
DNS servers to manage the mapping of those names to those addresses. Most URLs
are built around the domain name of the web server that takes client requests.

Working of DNS server with one example:

1. Information request - We want to visit our website and we know the domain name.
We write it in our web browser, and the first thing it does is to check for local cache if we
have visited it before, if not it will do a DNS query to find the answer.

2. Recursive DNS servers - If we haven’t visited the page before, our computer will
search the answer with our internet provider’s recursive DNS servers. They have cache
too so we can get the result from there. If they don’t, they will need to search the
information for us in another place.

3. Root name servers - Our query can travel a long way. The next step is the name
servers. They are like intermediates; they don’t know the answer, but they know where
to find it.

4. Top-Level Domain (TLD) name servers - The name servers will read from right to left
and direct we to the Top Top-Level Domain (TLD) name servers for the extension (.com
or another). These TLD servers will lead us finally to the servers which have the right
information.

5. Authoritative DNS servers - These DNS servers check the DNS records for the
information. There are different records, for example, we want to know the IP address
for a website, so our request is Address Record (A).

6. Retrieve the record - The recursive server gets the A record for the website we want
from the authoritative name servers and stores it on its local cache. If somebody else
needs the host record for the same site, the information will be already there, and it
won’t need to pass through all these steps. All this data has an expiration date. This
way, the users will get up to date information.
7. The final answer - Now that the recursive server has the A record it sends it to our
computer. The PC will save the record, read the IP and pass the information to our
browser. The browser makes the connection to the web server, and it is finally possible
for us to see the website.

Conclusion - It is a long process, but actually, it takes fractions of a second.

Ans 5.

A proxy server is a dedicated computer or a software system running on a computer

that acts as an intermediary between an endpoint device, such as a computer, and
another server from which a user or client is requesting a service. The proxy server may
exist in the same machine as a firewall server or it may be on a separate server, which
forwards requests through the firewall.

An advantage of a proxy server is that its cache can serve all users. If one or more
Internet sites are frequently requested, these are likely to be in the proxy's cache, which
will improve user response time. A proxy can also log its interactions, which can be
helpful for troubleshooting.

Networking - In some cases, a proxy server may be required due to our networking
configuration. If we have multiple PCs in our office, the router provided by our Internet
service provider serves as a sort of proxy for our system. All outgoing traffic first travels
to the router, which serves as our connection to the outside world. From the perspective
of the Internet, all your traffic seems to come from a single IP address, no matter how
many machines we connect on our side of the router.

Access Control - In some cases, a proxy may serve as a central node for logging or
filtering Internet traffic. A company may route all traffic through an internal proxy in order
to prevent users from accessing sites that are not work related and many even contain
inappropriate content, as well as to record the activities of its users online. A proxy may
also require a username and password for Internet access, preventing unauthorized
users from spending time online on non-company business. A proxy server can also
cache commonly accessed resources, reducing the amount of network traffic

Anonymity - Since all traffic routed through a proxy appears to originate from that proxy,
some users take advantage of this system for anonymity purposes. Using an external
proxy can make it difficult for a third party to track your activities online. It is important to
note, however, that the owner of a proxy can easily monitor activity that passes through
it, so using an insecure proxy may open you up to many security risks. In addition, since
our Web traffic must travel to the proxy server before it can navigate to the target
server, this setup can introduce considerable amounts of latency and slow down our
browsing session.

International Proxies - Proxies are also useful when we are dealing with international
restrictions. Some websites alter the content they provide based on the user’s home
country, and using an international proxy that masks our country of origin can help
bypass those restrictions. In extreme cases, users in countries that censor the Internet
can use international proxies to access banned content, and free-speech advocates and
activists can use the anonymity provided by proxies to share information freely with
other users.

Ans. 3.

A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for

demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital
signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known
sender, and that it was not altered in transit. Digital signatures are commonly used for
software distribution, financial transactions, and in other cases where it is important to
detect forgery or tampering. Digital signatures are often used to implement electronic
signatures, a broader term that refers to any electronic data that carries the intent of a
signature, but not all electronic signatures use digital signatures.
In some countries, including the United States, India, and members of the European
Union, electronic signatures have legal significance. However, laws concerning
electronic signatures do not always make clear whether they are digital cryptographic
signatures in the sense used here, leaving the legal definition, and so their importance,
somewhat confused.

Digital signatures employ a type of asymmetric cryptography. For messages sent

through a non-secure channel, a properly implemented digital signature gives the
receiver reason to believe the message was sent by the claimed sender. Digital
signatures are equivalent to traditional handwritten signatures in many respects;
properly implemented digital signatures are more difficult to forge than the handwritten
type. Digital signature schemes in the sense used here are cryptographically based,
and must be implemented properly to be effective. Digital signatures can also provide
non-repudiation, meaning that the signer cannot successfully claim they did not sign a
message, while also claiming their private key remains secret; further, some non-
repudiation schemes offer a time stamp for the digital signature, so that even if the
private key is exposed, the signature is valid nonetheless. Digitally signed messages
may be anything representable as a bitstring: examples include electronic mail,
contracts, or a message sent via some other cryptographic protocol.

A digital signature (not to be confused with a digital certificate) is an electronic signature

that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a message or the signer of
a document, and possibly to ensure that the original content of the message or
document that has been sent is unchanged. Digital signatures are easily transportable,
cannot be imitated by someone else, and can be automatically time-stamped. The
ability to ensure that the original signed message arrived means that the sender cannot
easily repudiate it later.

A digital signature can be used with any kind of message, whether it is encrypted or not,
simply so that the receiver can be sure of the sender's identity and that the message
arrived intact. A digital certificate contains the digital signature of the certificate-issuing
authority so that anyone can verify that the certificate is real.

Working of Digital Signature

Assume we were going to send the draft of a contract to our lawyer in another town. We
want to give our lawyer the assurance that it was unchanged from what you sent and
that it is really from you.

1. We copy-and-paste the contract (it's a short one!) into an e-mail note.

2. Using special software, we obtain a message hash (mathematical summary) of the
contract.
3. We then use a private key that we have previously obtained from a public-private key
authority to encrypt the hash.
4. The encrypted hash becomes our digital signature of the message. (Note that it will
be different each time we send a message.)

At the other end, our lawyer receives the message.

1. To make sure it's intact and from you, our lawyer makes a hash of the received
message.
2. Our lawyer then uses our public key to decrypt the message hash or summary.
3. If the hashes match, the received message is valid