Direct connection access:

Permanent, leased telephone line or radio link between one computer or network with another. Direct-connections do not require dialing and logging-on to internet or any other network.

Concept of CGI
CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface, and couples your web page to a program which does the desired task for you. Now you can make dynamic web pages, pages that can interact with the user. You can think of forms, quizzes, counters, a bulletin board system, you name it! CGI is intended to be platform and language independent. There are variety of popular server- side technologies for developing Web- based applications. Historically, the most widely used has been CGI.CGI lets HTTP(Hyper transfer protocol) clients interact with programs across a network through a web server. CGI is a standard for interfacing applications with a web browser. These CGI applications can be written in many different programming languages. Permission is granted within the web browser by a web master(or author of web site) to allow specific programs to be executed on the web server. Typically, CGI applications reside in the directory /cgi bin. CGI is not a language. It's a simple protocol that can be used to communicate between Web forms and your program. A CGI script can be written in any language that can read STDIN, write to STDOUT, and read environment variables, i.e. virtually any programming language, including C, Pearl, or even shell scripting.

For that matter, you do not need to use a language. It is not a programming style. You can use your own. It is not cryptic. Pearl is cryptic, all right, but see above: You dont need to use Perl. It is not for Unix gurus only. In fact, you dont have to be any kind of guru. All you need is to know how to program. And you already know that!

client-side
supports interaction within a webpage Client-side scripting enables interaction within a webpage. The code required to process userinput is downloaded and compiled by the browser or plug-in. An example of a client-side interaction is a rollover (typically triggered when choosing a navigation option). Client-side scripting languages include JavaScript.

server-side
information is sent to a server to be processed With server-side scripting, completing an activity involves sending information to another computer (server) across the internet. The server then runs a program that process the information and returns the results, typically a webpage. Search engines use server-side processing. When a keyword is sent, a program on a server matches the word or phrase entered against an index of website content. (To complete the same search as a client-side process would require the browser to download the entire search engine program and index.) Server-side scripting languages include ASP and PHP.

stateless interaction
Macromedia Flash application architecture enables a third type of scripting/interaction. Flash can store and process information both client-side and server-side. An example of this interaction is a Flash-based checkout process. Information the user enters (such as delivery and billing addresses, credit card details, etc.) can be stored and validated client-side. Once the required information has been completed a connection is established to the server and the order sent for processing.

client-side vs server-side
client-side interaction response to interaction may be more immediate (once the program code has been downloaded) services are secure (as no information is sent from the browser)

reliant on the user having using a specific browser and/or plug-in on their computer affected by the processing speed of the users computer

server-side interaction complex processes are often more efficient (as the program and the associated resources are not downloaded to the browser) there are security considerations when sending sensitive information

does not rely on the user having specific browser or plug-in affected by the processing speed of the host server

How the user connects to the internet affects both forms of interaction. For client-side scripting, the connection type affects the time it takes program code to be downloaded. For server-side processing, it affects the time taken for information to be sent to the server and the response downloaded

Environment variables
Environment variables are a set of dynamic named values that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. They can be said in some sense to create the operating environment in which a process runs. For example, an environment variable with a standard name can store the location that a particular computer system uses to store temporary files this may vary from one computer system to another. A process which invokes the environment variable by (standard) name can be sure that it is storing temporary information in a directory that exists and is expected to have sufficient space.[1] In almost all operating systems each process has its own private set of environment variables. By default, when a process is created it inherits a duplicate environment of its parent process, except for explicit changes made by the parent when it creates the child. Running programs can access the values of environment variables for configuration purposes. Examples of environment variables include:

Path - lists directories the shell searches, for the commands the user may type without having to provide the full path. Temp - location where processes can store temporary files UserProfile - indicate where a user's home directory is located in the file system. AppData\{DeveloperName\AppName} - for storing application settings. Temp - location where processes can store temporary files.

Difference b/w HTML & DHTML

HTML 1. It is referred as a static HTML and static in nature. 2.A plain page without any styles and Scripts called as HTML. 3.HTML sites will be slow upon client-side technologies.

HTML is static. It's simply a particular way of display information. An HTML page, much like a printed page, cannot respond to the user in any way. DHTML 1.It is referred as a dynamic HTML and dynamic in nature. 2.A page with HTML, CSS, DOM and Scripts called as DHTML. 3.DHTML sites will be fast enough upon client-side technologies. A DHTML page uses JavaScript to dynamically respond to the user's interactions. (The "D" in DHTML stands for "dynamic") When a DHTML page is more appropriate, than it is the logical choice. But in a situation where DHTML doesn't seem necessary, the extra effort of creating dynamic features may be a distraction to the user.

DHML used events, methods, properties to insulate dynamism in HTML Pages.

DHTML: Dynamic HTML. An extension of HTML that enables, among other things, the inclusion of small animations and dynamic menus in Web pages. DHTML code makes use of style sheets and JavaScript. When you see an object, or word(s), on a webpage that becomes highlighted, larger, a different color, or a streak runs through it by moving your mouse cursor over it is the result of adding a DHTML effect. This is done in the language coding and when the file of the webpage was saved it was saved as the .dhtml format instead of .htm or .html. DHTML sites are dynamic in nature. DHTML uses client side scripting to change variables in the presentation which affects the look and function of an otherwise static page. DHTML characteristics are the functions while a page is viewed, rather than generating a unique page with each page load (a dynamic website). On the other hand, HTML is static. HTML sites relies solely upon client-side technologies. This means the pages of the site do not require any special processing from the server side before they go to the browser. In other words, the pages are always the same for all visitors - static. HTML pages have no dynamic content, as in the examples above.

Flat Name Spaces

Name spaces can be flat or hierarchical. Flat name spaces do not scale well because they can grow only so large before all available names are used up. Once a name is used more than once in a name space, the name space violates the unambiguously resolvable requirement.

Hierarchical Name Space

A hierarchical name space is divided into different areas, which can be thought of as subname spaces. Each area is its own subname space within the overall name space. Therefore, each object must have a unique name only within its subname space in order to have an unambiguously resolvable name within the name space hierarchy. Hierarchical name spaces, then, can scale to extremely large networks as you add more objects to the overall name space, you have to find unique names for them within only the subname space to which they belong. All DNS name spaces are hierarchical. The subname spaces in the DNS hierarchical name space are called domains. The unique name of a computer within a domain is called a relative distinguished name. Computers with the same relative distinguished name can exist in different subname spaces (domains) of the name space hierarchy because they can be fully resolved to a unique object within the entire DNS hierarchy, using an FQDN. For example, you could have a server called server1 in the widgets.microsoft.com domain (the widgets.microsoft.com name space), and you could have server1 in the gadgets.widgets.microsoft.com name space. Because they are in different subname spaces in the hierarchical name space, they can be resolved to different FQDNs:server1.widgets.microsoft.com and server1.gadgets.widgets.microsoft.com.

Java Sockets
As we saw in the last chapter Socket is an abstraction of an IP Port. Sockets are a concept that have been around in programming languages for some time. They first appeared in early Unix systems in the 1970s and are now the 'standard' low-level communication primitive. Prior to Java, they were fairly painful to use - but now you can build applications using them quite straightforwardly. Actually, there are two kinds of sockets - connection-oriented sockets, almost always based on TCP, and connectionless sockets, usually based on User Datagram Protocol (UDP). The difference is that TCP-type sockets guarantee data arrives, and in the correct order whereas UDP-type ones do not. In addition to distinguishing TCP-type and UDP-type sockets, we must also distinguish - in Java - between client and server sockets. It might seem obvious that 'server sockets run on servers and client sockets on clients' but this is not always true servers can be both servers and clients, and clients can legitimately run server sockets. The real difference is that server sockets wait for connections to be initiated by client sockets - the naming is not particularly helpful.

Socket

Socket is a combination of ip address and port number Client sends request to the server by using servers ip address and the corresponding port number Java has java.net.Socket class to communicate through socket A socket allows to perform 4 fundamental socket operations: 1. Connecting to remote systems 2. Sending data to the nodes in the network 3. Receiving data from the server 4. Closing connection to the server Every socket is associated with only one remote host. Data is sent and received through byte oriented streams. The getOutputStream() is utilized to place the request and getInputStream() is utilized to receive response. The following are the methods to return the information about the socket: public InetAddress getInetAddress() to obtain the ip address public int getPort() to obtain the port

Portal
While this term can also refer to a matterless vortex used to travel between different dimensions, an Internet portal is a Web site that acts as a starting point for browsing the Web. Portals typically include search engines and large directories of websites. Some popular portals are Yahoo, Excite, Lycos, Netscape, AltaVista, MSN, and AOL.com. There are also many smaller portals, known as "niche portals," for specific interests. These sites include C|net (for computers and technology), Fool.com (for investors), and Garden.com (for gardeners). Most large portals have millions of Web pages indexed for visitors to search though. They also have large directories of Web sites, which are categorized by topic. Though the primary purpose of a portal is to find other sites for you, many now include a lot of information within their own sites.