Chapter 6

Understanding Internet Technologies and Security


What is a computer network?  In its simplest form, a network consists of two or more connected computers- as we found out earlier in the earlier chapters.  Major hardware, software, and transmission components are used in a simple network.  The network can and does get more complex when things like network interface cards (NIC), network operating systems NOS), hubs, routers, LAN's,  MAN's and WAN's, client server network, and more are added to mix.  All of these components help the computers communicate with on another by packet switching.
Ok, still with me?  Because it's about to get a little more complicated...

Sometimes LAN's are described in the way their components are connected together or their topology.  There are three major LAN topologies: star, bus, and ring.  (See photos  because its mush easier to see what these look like rather than explain)


Networks use different types of physical transmission media, including twisted wire, coaxial cable, fiber optics, and media for wireless transmission - infrared, radio, microwave.

So, we have small, medium, and large networks...now the way in which all of these systems communicate is quite complex.  The Internet infrastructure breaks it down.  As we know, every computer on the Internet is assigned a unique IP address, its 32-bit number represented by four strings of numbers ranging from 0 to 255.  Because it would be incredibly difficult for Internet users to remember strings of 12 numbers, the Domain Name System (DNS) converts domain names to IP addresses.  Its  the English-like name that corresponds to the unique 32-bit numeric IP address for each computer connected to the Internet.  Remember ISP's from the beginning of the term?  ISP's are an important part of the network as are NSP's, peering, and TCP/IP.  These all make up the computers IP address.


All these computers "talking" to one another 24/7 raises some security issues.  Vulnerable systems could lose data in a blink of an eye if precautionary measures are not taken.  Have you ever had a computer crash?  Or a computer virus? Malware, spyware? Worm? Trojan horse error?  These are example of security breaches. The potential for unauthorized access, abuse, or fraud is not limited to a single location (like paper files in a drawer) but can occur at any access point in the network.  Which translates to a lot of access points on a network, like; client, communication lines, corporate servers, corporate servers, etc.  The large the network, like the Internet, the more vulnerable it is.  It is extremely important to back-up your omputer and data and to have a disaster recovery plan!

Heartbreaker

One thing is for certain, I was put on this Earth to be my adorable little guy's mom!  I love being a mommy, especially to a super cute four year old, however, that leaves me (literally) ZERO time to get anything done.  He is with me 24/7 and always provides me with "entertainment" and always makes me smile.
So, when attempting to come up with a clever and unique sound to record into SoundCloud, my main squeeze crawled onto my lap and just started talking.  Some of our conversations were sweet, funny, silly, etc., but this one broke my heart a little :(
Audio Recording

The assignment p oration of SoundCloud will be posted here.

Thanks!

Chapter 5

Online portals are fantastic.  Portals refer to a Web site or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls plus more!  Horizontal portal, such as MyYahoo! Specialized website (portal) that serves as an entry point to several firms in the same industry or to the same type of suppliers. These are customizable to your personal preferences.  Vertical portals or vortals Specialized website that serves as an entry point to a specific market or industry niche, subject area, or interest.  Portals lead us all around the Web and act as gateways to  additional content.  Other types of portals include industry and corporate portals which can have customized specifics well like for a company or vendor.




  

Since just about everything is done online now-a-days, having news oriented websites makes life so much simpler!  It takes just a "click" and everything from News, sports, weather, and traffic which are updated constantly gives me instant results.  No more reading/skimming the newspaper or waiting for the evening news to come on and wait to get what I want.  I can now hop on my computer or phone and see what I'm looking for. It's instant gratification! What makes these sites so great is that (most) have interactivity and you-the user- can input specifics to get details about your region. Ever see an "Enter your zip code" search box on a website? This type of customizability targets your wants and needs not the stations or companies.  It's kinda nice to have things be all about me for a change, HA!

Chapter 4, post #2- You've Got Email

Electronic mail or email has revolutionized the ability to communicate almost instantly with anyone, anywhere at anytime.  Email is defined as being able to send messages and files over a local computer network or the Internet.  Several components make up an how an email message is sent and received.
For example a sender creates a message using an email client, a SMTP server determines the best route to the message's destination (including contacting the DNS name server to resolve the host domain name), the message is then routed through multiple Internet routers, the mail server receives the message (usually an ISP incoming mail server mailbox), then the recipient receives the message using an email client.  Whats really impressive is that all this take place in nano second or seconds.  It's almost instant.

The composition of an email has several components.  There's a "to:" line, which is the recipient's email address; "Cc:" line which is a carbon copy or courtesy copy of the composed email.  This can be sent to any email address.  The "Bcc:" line ticks me off sometimes!  It stands for blind courtesy copy which does not allow the original receiver of the email message to view what email address is within this line.  The "Subject:" line states the purpose, description or title of the email.  The "attach:" line can be used to add files to the email such as photos, videos, documents, most types of digital media.  The "message body:" is where you type your message.  It's the text of the email.  Some people use an email signature as their closing to the message body, much like a signature on a paper letter.  Except, here a digital representation would be used, either typed text or an uploaded signature file.
Here's a shot of my Yahoo! mail composer.

Chapter 4 post #1

Communicating online is an everyday occurrence for me.  I check my email, IM (instant message) people or PING them, Skype, read articles from the Associated Press, update blogs, and connect with family and friend through several social networks.  I honestly can say I've never thought of how I'm able to do these things.

Learning the components of email systems as well as e-mail etiquette was something that was just known to me, never explained or taught.  After reading Chapter 4 I can now say I do!  In the next few posts, I'll explain what I learned from Chapter 4 in more detail!

Past Life

In a previous career, I was able to use on-line survey's in order to predict the number of participants for an event.  I could use the survey for just about anything from; meal choices, satisfaction levels, shirt/clothing sizes or an overall rating of "How we're doing", you name it, I could create a survey for it.  It was great and very informative.  However, I had to manually insert the responses into a spreadsheet, which usually came back to me via snail mail or email or sometimes a duplicate would cross my desk.

Google docs has made this process so much simpler!  The "Forms" option within a spreadsheet is an awesome feature to collect data from the participants of the survey.  I love how I can use the data in charts, graphs, etc.  and add it to a report for an amazing presentation aid.  Very cool. 
I plan on using Google forms for personal as well as professional reasons.  Personal - I can send out an e-vite to a get together (for example).  Professionally, I can create a survey and chart the responses and data immediately for any type of scenario. 

Just another cool tool I can use in a future endeavor!