Internet Basics

The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer
networks composed of other networks and individual computers in which users at
any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other
computer. The internet makes use of the TCP/IP protocol suite (to be covered later)
in order to perform connections and communication.

The technical coordinating body of the internet is ICANN. Network Solutions used to
be responsible for assigning domain names and IP addresses. This function has now
been taken over by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN)
which is a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Network Solutions still
maintains the master database of all domain names and IP addresses.

Each distinct version of an Internet standards-related specification is published as

part of the "Request for Comments" (RFC) document series. RFCs cover a range of
topics in addition to Internet Standards, from discussions of new research concepts
to memos about the status of the Internet.

World Wide Web

While the internet is a collection of interconnected networks and computers, the
World Wide Web is the portion of the internet comprised of massive collections of
files and resources that are accessible via a web browser. Client computers using a
web browser send HTTP requests to a web server which returns the requested file to
the client's web browser as shown below.

Web communication and HTML standards are overseen by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C).

Physical Infrastructure
In order to handle the enormous amount of traffic that flows on the internet, it has
been constructed with backbones. Backbones are high speed networks usually
composed of fiber optic cable that are used to connect the smaller networks that
make up the internet. Backbones connect to each other at Network Access Points
(NAPs). It would obviously be impractical for everyone to spend the money to obtain
the equipment necessary to connect directly to the backbones, which is how Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) came about. ISPs run a network that connects to an internet
backbone at a NAP and sell a service that provides a connection to the internet via
their network to individuals and business.
There are now several different ways to connect to an ISP including dial-up modem,
DSL, T1 and cable technologies which will be discussed later. Regardless of the
connection type, the graphic below shows how these concepts all fit together.

Domains
Nameservers are distributed into tiers called domains. Domains are organized in a
hierarchical "domain name space" which is often referred to as being like a tree
structure. There are several different domain levels as listed below:

• Root Level Domains - The top of the tree.

• Top Level Domains - These are divided into different categories. Some of the
more common types are shown below:
o .com - Commercial organizations and companies (e.g. yahoo.com)
o .edu - Educational institutes(e.g. harvard.edu)
o .gov - Government owned institutes(e.g. whitehouse.gov)
o .mil - Military domains(e.g. navy.mil)
o .net - Gateways and other networks(e.g. internic.net)
o .org - Private organizations(e.g. eff.org)
o Country codes - International domains (e.g. .ca = Canada)
• Second Level Domains - These domains make up the rest of networks as all
sub-domains are categorized under this heading. So if you visit Intel's site,
you are visiting the sub-domain intel.com. Within intel.com many other sub-
domains may also exist.
• Hosts - Hosts are the final level in the hierarchy as they are the individual
computers that occupy or comprise a domain.

The HTTP Protocol

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a part of the TCP/IP protocol suite and is
the set of rules for exchanging files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other
multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. It is the protocol controlling the transfer
and addressing of HTTP requests and responses. The current version is HTTP 1.1
which allows multiple websites to be hosted from a single IP address.
The Uniform Resource Locator

The first part is the ‘service descriptor’ which identifies the protocol being used (in
the diagram above it is HTTP). The ‘//’ indicates the start of path (the root directory)
which is followed by the domain name. The remainder of the address is the directory
path on the server that specifies the location of the file to be fetched. An
administrator may wish to keep a web site hidden from the general public which can
be done by changing the port that it is accessed on. A TCP port can be specified in
the URL such as http://search.harvard.edu:4847. The TCP port can be any number
in the range of 0 to 65536. The normal HTTP port id 80.

Bandwidth and Throughput

The term bandwidth refers the size of the "pipe" that carries data. While often
mistakenly used interchangeably with the term bandwidth, throughput refers to a
measure of the amount of data flowing through the "pipe" over a given period of
time. These 2 concepts are important when troubleshooting performance problems
such as slow downloads or web pages taking to long to load. Note that there are
other factors that can cause web pages to load slowly, for example, if there are too
many processes running on the server or the hardware is outdated. There are
applications available that can be used to stress test a server. The table below shows
the different connection types and their speeds.
Connection Speed Medium Description
Dial-up connection Up to 56
Twisted pair Rapidly being replace by faster technologies.
(POTS) Kbps
Twisted-pair, coaxial Large company to ISP
T-1 1.544 Mbps
cable, or optical fiber ISP to Internet infrastructure
Twisted-pair, coaxial
E-1 2.048 Mbps 32-channel European equivalent of T-1
cable, or optical fiber
Twisted-pair, coaxial Large company to ISP
T-2 6.312 Mbps
cable, or optical fiber ISP to Internet infrastructure
Digital Subscriber 256 Kbps to 8 Home, small business, and enterprise access
Twisted-pair
Line (DSL) Mbps using existing phone lines
512 Kbps to
Cable modem Coaxial cable Home, business, school access
52 Mbps
Twisted-pair or optical European version of T-3 that carries 16 E-l
E-3 34.368 Mbps
fiber signals
ISP to Internet infrastructure
T-3 44.736 Mbps Coaxial cable
Smaller links within Internet infrastructure
ISP to Internet infrastructure
OC-1 51.84 Mbps Optical fiber
Smaller links within Internet infrastructure
Large company backbone
OC-3 155.52 Mbps Optical fiber
Internet backbone
Asynchronous 622.08 Mbps Optical fiber Internet backbone
Transfer Mode
When discussing speed, a common task is the calculation of download times. There is
a conversion process involved in this since connection speeds are measured in Bits
Per Second (Bps) and file sizes are measured in bytes. The formula for calculating
download times is a follows: Download time = file size / connection speed.

Let's take a look at an example - Let's say you wish to find out how long it will take
to download a 1mb file over a 56K dial-up modem connection. The first thing we
need to do is convert the connection and the file size into a common measurement -
as is most commonly done, we will use bits. Our 56 Kilobit connection is easily
converted to bits by multiplying by 1000 which gives us a 56000 bits per second
connection. To convert the file size to bits, you need to remember that there are 8
bits in a byte and our file is 1 megabyte in size. 1 Megabyte = 1024 Kilobytes and 1
Kilobyte = 1024 Bytes. Thus, we multiply 1 x 1024 x 1024 x 8 which equals
8,388,608. We now plug our number into our forumla such that 8,388,608/56,000 =
149.78 seconds which comes to 2 minutes and 30 seconds (rounded).

It is probably still a little confusing so let's do one more example. This time we want
to find out how long it will take to download a 25Mb file on a T-1 connection. A T-1
connection operates at 1.544 Mbps which is 1,544,000 bits. Our file is converted to
bits by multiplying 25 x 1024 x 1024 x 8 which equals 209,715,200 bits. We then
plug these numbers into our formula as follows: 209,715,200/1,544,000 = 135.83
seconds or 2 minutes and 16 seconds (rounded).

Internet Clients
There are a wide (and growing) variety of types of internet clients. From a hardware
perspective, these can include desktop computers, Portable Digital Assistants
(PDAs), E-mail machines, cell phones, WebTV, etc. Different types of software clients
are then loaded on these devices in order to access the various resources and
services that are available on the internet. Software clients can include applications
such as browsers, e-mail clients, FTP clients, etc.

Browsers
A browser is the software application run on an internet client that provides a GUI
interface for accessing files on the WWW. The most popular browsers are Microsoft's
Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator. Browsers use the HTTP protocol to
communicate with web servers. Clients can utilize a couple of different methods to
receive content from the internet. Pull technology is used whenever a client pulls
information from a server while push technology involves information being
automatically delivered to a client without the need for a request.

A client needs to have the proper TCP/IP settings configured including IP address,
subnet mask and gateway address in order to access the internet. Furthermore, if
the client is behind a proxy server, the browser needs to be configured with the
proxy server information.

Browsers can save files from a visited web site on the local hard drive - a process
known as Browser Caching or client-side caching. The next time a request is made to
visit this same web site, the files will be pulled from the cache on the local hard drive
instead of downloading them over the internet connection. Loading the files from
cache is faster than downloading them, however, if changes are made to a cached
web site, you may not be able to see them unless you reload the web page and force
the browser to download the pages again. Periodically, the browser cache may need
to be cleaned out to preserve disk space.

Microsoft's WebTV enables interactive television shows and internet browsing using
the television as a monitor. Because WebTV acts as a web browser, web designers
should make sure that they test their web sites on this platform as there are
differences between how sites are displayed on WebTV and a regular browser.

Cookies
Cookies are unencrypted text files stored on the client computer that store
information about the user for use on a web site. They are commonly used to
customize pages for you based on your browser type or other information and
preferences that you may have provided the Web site. Most browsers will accept
cookies by default, however, the security settings can be changed to reject them. If
this is done, some web pages will lose functionality or not work correctly for that
user. An expiration date can be set in a cookie. If no expiration is set, the cookie will
expire when the browser is closed. A single domain is restricted to only setting 20
cookies and each cookie can be a maximum of 4KB in order to prevent client
machines from being inundated with cookies and filling up hard drive space.

E-Mail
Email addresses appear in the form: user@domainname. When an email is sent, it
lands on a server where it remains until it is downloaded by a client. E-mail utilizes 2
protocols to handle the delivery of messages as follows:

• SMTP - SMTP is responsible for sending mail. Usually it is sent to a POP3

server.
• POP3 - POP3 is the responsible for downloading email from a POP3 server to
an email client such as Outlook or Eudora.

Email is often used for mailing lists which can distribute a newsletter, advertisement,
etc to a group of subscribed members that usually "opt-in" to join the list. A
Listserver is responsible for handling this type of mass email distribution. Unwanted
email is known as SPAM.

MIME
MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions and was created because the
SMTP protocol was designed to handle ASCII text only. MIME allows for binary files
such as images to be sent via email. Web browsers use MIME to understand how to
display non-HTML data within the browser. Servers insert the MIME header at the
beginning of any Web transmission. Clients use this header to select an appropriate
"player" application for the type of data the header indicates.

On a similar note BinHex is used to encode Macintosh files for network transfer or
email attachements.

The File Transfer Protocol

The file transfer protocol (FTP) is the primary method of transferring files over the
Internet. As a user, you can use FTP with a simple command line interface (for
example, from the Windows MS-DOS Prompt window) or with a commercial program
that offers a graphical user interface such as WS_FTP.
Two transfer modes are used in FTP. ASCII and BINARY. ASCII mode is used for the
transfer of files consisting of plain text while the BINARY mode is used all types of
files not consisting of plain text (such as sound, video, executables, images etc).
Failure to upload files in the proper format can cause them not to display correctly or
at all.

You have to enter some specific commands to use FTP unless you have a GUI based
FTP client. Common FTP commands that you need to know are:

• open - This command is used to establish a connection to a FTP host.

Example: open ftp.idsoftware.com.
• close - This command is used to disconnect from a FTP host. Example: close.
• bye - This command is used to quit the FTP client. Example: bye
• get - This command is used to download a file from a FTP host. Example: get
agenda.txt c:\myagenda.txt. This command downloads the file agenda.txt
and puts it into the c:\ directory with the name myagenda.txt. The second
parameter is optional.
• put - This command uploads a file from the local computer to a FTP host.
Example: put recipe18.txt pudding.txt. This command uploads the file
recipe18.txt on the server by the name pudding.txt. The second parameter is
also optional for this command.
• mget - This command downloads multiple files. You can specify criteria for the
files by using wildcards. The arguments are same as get.
• mput - Used to upload multiple files. The arguments are the same as put.
• type - Used to change transfer mode. Example: type a or type I.

Newsgroups
A newsgroup is a discussion about a particular subject consisting of notes written to
a central Internet site and redistributed through Usenet, a worldwide network of
news discussion groups. The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is the protocol
used by computer clients and servers for managing the notes posted on Usenet
newsgroups.

Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a system for chatting that involves a set of rules and
conventions and client/server software. On the Web, certain sites provide servers
and help you download an IRC client to your computer.

Telnet
Telnet is a protocol that allows you to connect to remote computers over the
Internet. There is a telnet server on the remote host, which the telnet client
negotiates with to establish a connection. Once connected, the client becomes a
virtual terminal, and allows you to interface with the host computer from your
computer. In most cases, you'll be asked to log into the remote system. This usually
requires an account on that host. Occasionally you can log in as guest or public
without having an account.
Web Servers and Hosting
Web Servers
A web server is the computer that is responsible for sending web pages, images and
applications to internet users. Some companies host their own web servers on their
equipment and others outsource this function to another company called a web host.

There are 2 main web server types described below:

 Apache - Apache is an open source web server and is typically run on *nix
servers (Unix, Linux, Free BSD, etc), although there is a version available for
Windows based servers. Apache has been the leading web server software for quite a
 Microsoft - More recently, Microsoft has developed Internet Information Server
(IIS) which is a fully functional web server that runs on Windows NT and 2000
servers. Microsoft has made great gains in this market. Their ASP technology has
greatly helped the success of IIS as a web server.

Web Hosts:
A web host is a company that stores your web site pages and data on their server
and deliver web page requests to your visitors for a fee. Web hosts typically provide
support and maintenance functions for web sites that they host as well. There are
several different types of web hosting web masters can choose from.
 Free - Free hosting is typically for personal homepages. Companies such as
Geocities, Tripod, Angelfire, etc. These types of web hosts typically have stringent
bandwidth restrictions in place.
 Virtual - With virtual hosting, your web site is hosted on a powerful server along
with many other web sites. On a shared host it is common that each web site have
their own domain name.
 Dedicated - Like the name implies, your web site will have it's own server. This
option is necessary for very large, high traffic web sites.

ASP:
An Application Service Provider (ASP) is a company or hosted service that provides
an online software application that would normally be installed to the customer's
local computer or network. The service runs completely off the hosting company's
World Wide Web server and is accessed via a web browser such as Microsoft Internet
Explorer. An example of an ASP would be ETRADE who provides updated stock
services and applications to other stock market related web sites for a fee. ASPs may
provide services such as custom web hosting, email, faxing, access to internet
software, etc.

Management:
In order to maintain, protect and troubleshoot your web server, you will need to
understand log files. Both Apache and Microsoft provide log files that provide
information about server issues, traffic, performance and more. These log files are
typically stored in text files, however, there are applications available that can
convert this raw data into a more user friendly format.

The operating systems that web servers run on typically include network and
hardware monitoring software that allows you to view the performance levels of your
web server. This can be an important tool for troubleshooting problems.
Networking
 Bus
This is an older topology and essentially has each of the computers on the network
daisy-chained to each other. This type of network is usually peer to peer and uses
Thinnet(10base2) cabling. It is configured by connecting a "T-connector" to the
network adapter and then connecting cables to the T-connectors on the computers
on the right and left. At both ends of the chain the network must be terminated with
a 50 ohm impedance terminator.

As you can see if computer #1 sends a packet to computer #4, it must pass through
computers #2 and #3, creating excess traffic.
 Star
The star is probably the most commonly used topology today. It uses twisted
pair(10baseT or 100baseT) cabling and requires that all devices are connected to a
hub.

 Ring
The ring topology looks the same as the star, except that it uses special hubs and
ethernet adapters. The Ring topology is used with Token Ring networks.
 Hybrid - Hybrid topologies are combinations of the above and are common on
very large networks. For example, a star bus network has hubs connected in a row
(like a bus network) and has computers connected to each hub as in the star
topology.

 Mesh - In a true mesh topology every node has a connection to every other node
in the network. A full mesh network can be very expensive, but provides redundancy
in case of a failure between links.
Internet Devices

• NIC - Stands for Network Interface Card and is the adapter card that is
installed in a computer that provides connectivity to a network.
• Hub - A hub is used to connect computers on an ethernet network.
• Modems - The most common and inexpensive way for home users to connect
to the internet is via the use of a modem connected to telephone lines. While
this technology is rapidly being replaced by DSL and Cable technologies, you
will still need to know about this connection type.
Command Purpose
Hayes Corporation developed a smart modem which accepted AT
ATA Answer Call
type commands. This is now a widely accepted standard that can be
used to directly communicate with the modem (via hyperterminal). ATD Dial
To the right are some of the common AT commands that you may
ATH Hang Up
need to know.
ATZ Reset
• When using a modem, call waiting should be disabled otherwise your
connection will be disabled when incoming telephone calls come in. Special
modems are also used for newer DSL and Cable technologies. These modems
are often Cisco routers.
• Repeater - Boosts signals in order to allow a signal to travel farther and
prevent attenuation. Attentuation is the degradation of a signal as it travels
farther from its origination. Repeaters do not filter packets and will forward
broadcasts. Both segments must use the same access method, which means
that you can't connect a token ring segment to an Ethernet segment.
Repeaters can connect different cable types.
• Bridges - Functions the same as a repeater, but can also divide a network in
order to reduce traffic problems. A bridge can also connect unlike network
segments(ie. token ring and ethernet). Bridges create routing tables based on
the source address. If the bridge can't find the source address it will forward
the packets to all segments.
• Switch - A switch prevents traffic jams by ensuring that data goes straight
from its origin to its proper destination, with no wandering in between.
Switches remember the address of every node on the network, and anticipate
where data needs to go. It only operates with the computers on the same
LAN. It isn't smart enough to send data out to the internet, or across a WAN.
These functions require a router.
• Routers - A router will do everthing that a bridge will do and more. Routers
are used in complex networks because they do not pass broadcast traffic. A
router will determine the most efficient path for a packet to take and send
packets around failed segments. Unroutable protocols can't be fowarded.
• Gateways - Often used as a connection to a mainframe or the internet.
Gateways enable communications between different protocols, data types and
environments. This is achieved via protocol conversion, whereby the gateway
strips the protocol stack off of the packet and adds the appropriate stack for
the other side.
• Firewall - Either a hardware or software entity that protects a network by
stopping network traffic from passing through it. In most cases, a firewall is
placed on the network to allow all internal traffic to leave the network (emails
to the outside world, web access, etc.), but stop all traffic from the outside
world from entering the internal network. While firewalls are most often found
on corporate networks, there are solutions available for client/home
 computers called personal firewalls. There are several different types of
filtering that firewalls can provide. With filtering in place, each IP network
packet is examined to see if it matches one of a set of rules defining what
data flows are allowed. These rules identify whether communication is allowed
based upon information contained within the internet and transport layer
headers and the direction in which the packet is headed (internal to external
network or vice-versa). Packet filters typically enable you to manipulate (that
is, permit or prohibit) the transfer of data based on the following controls:
o Physical network interface that the packet arrives on
o Address the data is coming from (source IP address)
o Address the data is going to (destination IP address)
o Protocol
o Source port
o Destination port
• Internet Applicances - Internet appliances are increasing in popularity for
home use due to their very low cost. Internet appliances possess very little
hardware power and are designed to perform limited internet tasks such as
email and web browsing. Palm Pilot's are handheld computers that can
perform a variety of tasks.
• Cache Server - A Cache server saves Web pages and other files that users
have requested so that subsequent requests for the same data can be
retrieved from the cache server rather than downloading the information
again. Many proxy servers offer this functionality.
• Proxy Server - A proxy server acts as a middle-man between clients and the
Internet providing security, administrative control, and caching service. When
user makes a request for an internet service, if it passes filtering
requirements, the proxy server looks in its local cache of previously
downloaded web pages. If the item is found in cache, the proxy server
forwards it to the client. This reduces bandwidth through the gateway. If the
page is not in the cache, the proxy server uses Network Address Translation
(NAT) to use one of its own IP addresses to request the page from the
appropriate server.
• CSU/DSU - A CSU/DSU (Channel Service Unit / Data Service Unit) is a piece
of equipment that connects a leased line from the telephone company to the
customer's equipment (such as a router). Although CSU/DSU's look similar to
modems, they are not modems, and they don't modulate or demodulate
between analog and digital. All they really do is interface between a 56K, T1,
or T3 line and serial interface (typically a V.35 connector) that connects to the
router. Many newer routers have 56K or T1 CSU/DSUs build into them.
TCP/IP
Internet Protocol(IP)
IP is a connectionless protocol, which means that a session is not created before
sending data. IP is responsible for addressing and routing of packets between
computers. It does not guarantee delivery and does not give acknowledgement of
packets that are lost or sent out of order as this is the responsibility of higher layer
protocols such as TCP.

Transmission Control Protocol(TCP)

As opposed to IP, TCP is connection oriented and assures reliable delivery of packets.
When the destination host receives a segment it sends back an
acknowledgement(ack). If an ack is not received by the source host within a certain
period of time then the data is retransmitted. TCP uses sockets and ports to
exchange data between applications. Ports provide a specific and universal location
for message delivery, while sockets use the host ip address, port number and the
type of service (TCP or UDP) to create a reliable connection.

TCP/IP Addressing
Every IP address can be broken down into 2 parts, the Network ID(netid) and the
Host ID(hostid). All hosts on the same network must have the same netid. Each of
these hosts must have a hostid that is unique in relation to the netid. IP addresses
are divided into 4 octets with each having a maximum value of 255. We view IP
addresses in decimal notation such as 124.35.62.181, but it is actually utilized as
binary data so one must be able to convert addresses back and forth as shown in the
following table.
Decimal Binary When converting binary data to decimal, a "0" is equal to 0. "1" is
equal to the number that corresponds to the field it is in. For example,
128 10000000 the number 213 would be 11010101 in binary notation. This is
64 01000000 calculated as follows: 128+64+0+16+0+4+0+1=213. Remember that
32 00100000 this only represents 1 octet of 8 bits, while a full IP address is 32 bits
made up of 4 octets. This being true, the IP address 213.128.68.130
16 00010000 would look like 11010101 10000000 01000100 10000010.
8 00001000
4 00000100
2 00000010
1 00000001

IP addresses are divided into classes as shown in the table below:

Class Range Class A addresses are for networks with a large number of hosts. The
first octet is the netid and the 3 remaining octets are the hostid. Class
A 1-126 B addresses are used in medium to large networks with the first 2
B 128-191 octets making up the netid and the remaining 2 are the hostid. A class
C 192-223 C is for smaller networks with the first 3 octets making up the netid
and the last octet comprising the hostid.
D 224-239
E 240-255
Class D addresses are used for multicast broadcasts and class E addresses have
been reserved for future use. You will not likely come into contact with addresses
from these ranges. There are several other special addresses and ranges that you
should know.
The Loopback address is 127.0.0.1. This address is used to determine if TCP/IP has
been properly installed on your computer. This can be done by pinging 127.0.0.1.
There are also 2 private address ranges that are used for private networks. These
are 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x.

Subnetting
A subnet mask blocks out a portion of an IP address and is used to differentiate
between the hostid and netid. The default subnet masks are as follows:
Class Default Subnet Mask
Class A 255.0.0.0
Class B 255.255.0.0
Class C 255.255.255.0

Ports
TCP uses port numbers for services. The port numbers for common services are:
21 FTP
23 Telnet
25 SMTP
80 HTTP
110 POP3
These ports are the default, and if you change the service to another port, those
accessing it must specify the new port in their request. For example, if the web
service is changed from port 80 to port 8080, the URL to access our site becomes:
http://www.mcmcse.com:8080.

DHCP
DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and provides a solution that
automatically assigns IP addresses to computers on a network. When a client is
configured to receive an IP address automatically, It will send out a broadcast to the
DHCP server requesting an address. The server will then issue a "lease" and assign it
to that client. The time period that a lease will last can be specified on the server.
Some of the benefits of DHCP include the following:

• Prevents users from making up their own IP addresses.

• Prevents incorrect gateway or subnet masks from being entered.
• Decreases amount of time spent configuring computers especially in
environments where computers get moved around all the time.
• Handy in situations where you have a large sales staff that work remotely. On
that one day they bring their laptops and they can just plug them into the
network and they are all set.

Host Names
As opposed to NetBIOS names (Microsoft-only), host names exist is all operating
systems (Microsoft, Unix, etc.). Host names can be mapped to IP addresses to make
referencing hosts easier as you don't have to remember an IP address. There are
several different ways that host names can be resolved to IP addresses, the most
common of which are DNS and WINS servers. DNS is the more popular of the 2 as it
is supported by all platforms and is the name resolution system used on the internet.
On a small network, host name-to-IP resolution can be accomplished through the
use of HOSTS files. A proper hosts file entry begins with the IP address followed by
the host name and any comments as in the following example: 155.71.24.60
mcmcse #comments go here

DNS
The internet once used hosts files to resolve IP addresses to host names or domain
names. The internet grew to the point where the administration and the traffic
needed to maintain this file became unbearable and DNS was born. A DNS client(aka
resolver) sends requests to the DNS nameserver which responds with the requested
info, another server to query or a failure message. This process is very similar to
calling an operator. You call them with a name, they check their database and give
you the phone number. There are a variety of roles a nameserver can satisfy within
the zone that they are responsible for:

• Primary Nameserver - Gathers DNS information from local files and is a focal
point for adding hosts and domains.
• Secondary Nameserver - Gathers the data for its' zone(s) from another DNS
server. Secondary nameservers provide redundancy, traffic on primary server
and quicker access for locations that are remote in regards to the primary
server.
• Caching Only Servers - These do not have a zone that they are responsible
for. Their databases only contain info that is received from resolutions that it
has made since the the server was last started.

Different records are used in the DNS database for different types of resources on a
network. Below are the most common DNS record types.
Type Description
A Start of authority (SOA) record is the first entry in every DNS server. It contains the email
SOA
address of the DNS server's administrator and other information about DNS server database.
A Maps an IP address to a host's name.
NS This record is used to designate other name servers.
Host's canonical name used for creating aliases. An example would be our labs located at
CNAME lab.mcmcse.com. While the contents of this web page are actually hosted on another server, a
CNAME record has been set up giving the appearance that these pages are a part of MC MCSE.
MX Points to the Mail server for the domain.

LDAP
LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol which is used by programs to
query directories.

Remote Access Protocols

The following describes some of the various connections protocols used to connect to
the internet:

• SLIP - Stands for Serial Line Internet Protocol and is an older connection
protocol that has been largely replaced by PPP. SLIP is only able to transport
TCP/IP.
• PPP - Point-to-point Protocol (PPP) is a method for connecting a personal
computer to the Internet using a standard phone line and a modem. The
 difference between PPP and other, older dial-up procedures is that a PPP
setup will establish a direct Internet connection that allows the PC to use
TCP/IP (Internet-based) applications.
• PPTP - The Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) provides for the secure
transfer of data from a remote client to a private server by creating a multi-
protocol Virtual Private Network(VPN) by encapsulating PPP packets into IP
datagrams. Setting Up PPTP requires a PPTP Client, PPTP Server and a
Network Access Server(NAS). PPTP does not support the Appletalk protocol.
• PPPoE - PPPoE stands for Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet. In the past,
most internet users were connected to the internet via a serial modem,
however, newer technologies has found users connecting to the internet with
Ethernet such as with a DSL connection. PPPoE is a proprietary method of
creating a virtual connection between an ISP's network and a client machine.
• IPsec - IPSec is a suite of Internet-standard protocols that allow secure,
encrypted communications between two computers over an insecure network.
IPSec provides end-to-end security, meaning that the IP packets are
encrypted by the sending computer, are unreadable en route, and can be
decrypted only by the recipient computer.
• L2TP - L2TP creates a tunnel through a public network that is authenticated
on both ends, uses header compression, and relies on IPSec for encryption of
data passed through the tunnel. L2TP works like PPTP in that it creates a
"tunnel", but uses IPSec encryption in order to support non-IP protocols and
authentication.
• SSL - SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) uses a technique called public-key
cryptography to provide encrypted connections. This enables you to move
information across the Internet with confidence that it will not be intercepted
or modified in transit. This is heavily used in e-commerce and can be
identified by a URL that begins with HTTPS.

Troubleshooting Tools
The following are the most common tools used for troubleshooting TCP/IP on the
internet.
Probably the most important. This verifies that TCP/IP is configured correctly and that a
PING
connection can be made.
Allows you to view TCP/IP settings and configuration as well as release/renew addresses with
WINIPCFG
a DHCP server.
IPCONFIG Same as above for use on NT systems.
Enables you to view the route to a specified host. This will show how many hops the packets
TRACERT
have to travel and how long it takes.
ROUTE View or change entries in the routing table.
ARP View and add entries to the ARP cache.
NETSTAT Display protocol information and connection status
NBTSTAT Check NETBIOS connections and update LMHOSTS cache.
NSLOOKUP Used to verify name resolution (DNS)
Development
Internet File Formats
Most browsers can display GIF, GIF89a and JPEG formats while newer browsers have
added support for the PNG format. Following is a list of the different file formats that
one might find on the internet.

AVI - Audio Visual Interleave is a digital file format for audio and video. This type of
video is composed of JPEG images laced together in a very quick slide show. AVIs
tend to have large file sizes and when compressed, they tend to lose quality. AVIs
can be played with Windows Media Player.

BMP - BMP files are the default bitmapped images used in on Windows operating
systems. BMP files can support up to 16.7M colors.

GIF - Graphics Interchange Format is a palette based format that can have a
maximum of 256 colors, or 8 bits, chosen from a total of 16.7 Million, or 24 bits.
GIFs can also be animated (GIF89a format only) and support transparency.

Flash - Flash is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs that are
small enough to stream across a normal modem connection. In order for a web
browser to display Flash animation, a plug-in must be installed on the user's system.
For more information about the difference between vector and bitmap images read
this tutorial on the subject.

JPEG - JPEG is a 24 bit bitmap format that can be a very efficient way to compress
graphics for web sites due to its use of lossy compression. You can select how much
to compress a file, and therefore how much information is lost. The JPEG format
does not support animation or transparency.

MOV - MOV is a digital movie format for video and audio on the web. It is played
with Quicktime.

MPEG - Stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, is the name of family of standards
used for coding audio-visual information (e.g., movies, video, music) in a digital
compressed format. The major advantage of MPEG compared to other video and
audio coding formats is that MPEG files are much smaller for the same quality. This is
because MPEG uses very sophisticated compression techniques. MPEG layer 3 (MP3)
is a popular compressed audio format that reduces file size greatly without much loss
in quality.

PDF - Portable Document Format files can be read on any platform with Adobe’s
Acrobat Reader. In order to view PDF files in a web browser, a plug-in must be
installed.

PNG - Portable Network Graphics was designed to replace the GIF format, and
challenge JPEG for many purposes. PNG is capable of color depths from two colors,
or 1 bit, to 16.7 million colors with an Alpha channel, or 32 bit and supports
transparency.

TIFF - TIFF files are bitmap images commonly used in desktop publishing, faxing, 3-
D applications, and medical imaging applications. A plug-in is required to view TIFF
images in a browser.
VRML - Virtual Reality Modeling Language allows the display of 3-D objects within a
web browser with the installation of a plug-in.

Shockwave - Supports animation, audio and video on the web. Shockwave is

installed as a Netscape plug-in or an ActiveX control.

QuickTime - This format created by Apple supports video, audio, and animation to be
displayed with its strength laying in the ability to show 3-D photos and artwork

Real Player - Plays streaming RealAudio and RealVideo files. Streaming media
software utilizes User Datagram Protocol(UDP), Real Time Transport Protocol(RTP)
and Real Time Streaming Protocol(RTSP).

Windows Media Player - This player was developed by Microsoft and plays a wide
variety of media types.

Programming
In order to pass the exam, you do not need to know how to program, but you do
need to know the various programming languages and their properties as listed
below. It is important to note the difference between scripts that are executed on the
server (server-side) and those that are performed on the client (client-side).

• 3 Tier Model - This concept organizes applications into 3 parts that operate in
different locations on a network. The parts are:
o The presentation or workstation - responsible for the presentation of
data, receiving user events and controlling the user interface
o The business logic or application - acts as the server for client requests
from workstations
o The database - responsible for data storage
• ASP - An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more
scripts that are processed on a Microsoft Web server (server-side) before the
page is sent to the user. Because the server only returns HTML back to the
client, these pages can be viewed in almost any web browser and do not
require a plug-in or other 3rd party software. This technology is a feature of
Microsoft's web server known as Internet Information Server (IIS). ASP
allows for the creation of user specific environments and interactive web
pages.
• C - The C programming language is one of the oldest and is used for writing
applications and operating systems.
• C++ - The newer object-oriented version of C.
• DHTML - Dynamic HTML is a client side web technology that enables elements
inside your web page to be dynamic. DHTML scripts are scripts can be written
in a number of languages, although the most popular are JavaScript and
VBscript. DHTML scripts utilize and access the DHTML features of your 4+
generation browser.
• DTD - A DTD is a "Document Type Definition" which specifies the syntax
(grammatical structure) of a web page in SGML, the Standard Generalized
Markup Language of which HTML is an application. SGML is an international
standard for the definition of device-independent, system-independent
methods of representing texts in electronic form such as web pages.
• Java - Developed by Sun Microsystems, Java is an object-oriented client-side
programming language derived from C++ that is run on a client with the use
 of a Java Virtual Machine. Java applications found on the web are known as
applets. Java is platform independent.
• Javascript - Developed by Netscape, Javascript is a client-side scripting
language that can be used to provide a variety of functionality to a web site.
• Jscript - JScript is a script language from Microsoft that is designed for use
within Web pages is Microsoft's equivalent to Netscape's JavaScript.
• JSP - JavaServer Pages provide a simplified, fast way to create web pages
that display dynamically-generated content. You can use JSP tags or scriptlets
to generate the dynamic content. The logic that generates the content is
encapsulated in tags and JavaBeans components and tied together in
scriptlets, all of which are executed on the server side. On the server, a JSP
engine interprets JSP tags and scriptlets, generates content (for example, by
accessing JavaBeans components, accessing a database with JDBC
technology, or including files), and sends the results back in the form of an
HTML (or XML) page to the browser. The function of JSP is similar to ASP,
however, JSP is an open standard.
• Perl - Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language) is a server-side
script programming language that is used largely as a language for
developing CGI programs. CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface and is a
standard way for a Web server to pass a Web user's request to an application
program. CGI programs can tend to be server intensive. Perl requires that a
Perl Interpreter is loaded on the web server.
• PHP - PHP is a general-purpose, server-side scripting language that is
especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP
lets you create dynamic web pages which are treated just like regular HTML
pages and you can create and edit them the same way you normally create
regular HTML pages.
• Servelets - Java Servlets are generic extensions to Java-enabled servers.
Their most common use is to extend Web servers, providing a very secure,
portable, and easy-to-use replacement for CGI. A servlet is a dynamically
loaded module that services requests from a Web server. It runs entirely
inside the Java Virtual Machine. Because the servlet is running on the server
side, it does not depend on browser compatibility.
• VBScript - VBScript is a subset of Visual Basic designed for use on the World
Wide Web. It has been offered as an alternative to JavaScript and a means of
accessing ActiveX controls and Java applets.
• Visual Basic - A programming language with a graphical environment from
Microsoft used to create applications.
• XML - XML is the Extensible Markup Language. It is designed to improve the
functionality of the Web by providing more flexible and adaptable information
identification. It is called extensible because it is not a fixed format like HTML
(a single, predefined markup language). Instead, XML is actually a
`metalanguage' -- a language for describing other languages.
• XHTML - The evolution of HTML has essentially stopped. Instead, HTML is
being replaced by a new language, called XHTML. XHTML is in many ways
similar to HTML, but is designed to work with the new eXtensible Markup
Language, or XML, that will soon serve as the core language for designing all
sorts of new Web applications, in which XHTML will be only one of many
"languages". XHTML is designed to work with these other languages, so that
different documents, in different languages, can be easily mixed together.
• XSL - Stands for Extensible Stylesheet Language and is a language for
expressing style sheets. An XSL style sheet is, like with CSS, a file that
describes how to display an XML document of a given type. Separating the
 document's content and the document's styling information allows displaying
the same document on different media (like screen, paper, cell phone), and it
also enables users to view the document according to their preferences and
abilities, just by modifying the style sheet.
• WML - Wireless Markup Language, formerly called Handheld Devices Markup
Languages (HDML), is a language that allows the text portions of Web pages
to be presented on cell phones and PDAs via wireless access. WML is part of
the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). There are filter programs available
that can convert HTML pages into this format.

Databases
Databases have become a very common entity on the internet and are used to store
a wide variety of information including customer contact info, mailing lists, reports
and much more. There are a couple of different types of databases as follows:

• Flat-file - This type of database stores all of its information in one table. While
this type of database is still used to store smaller amounts of information, it is
not a good solution for larger information stores. We currently use a flat-file
database for our our forums.
• Relational - A relational database stores information in tables with the ability to
link data between tables at the record level. For this reason relational databases
are faster and more scalable. Our Training Directory utilizes a relational
database.

Information is retrieved and updated in databases via the use of the Structured
Query Language (SQL). In order for programs to use SQL requests that will access
databases without having to know their proprietary interfaces, the Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) application programming interface (API) was developed. ODBC
can be used to allow a web server to pull information out of a database and return
the data in HTML form to a web browser. A similar function is provided by JDBC
which allows Java applications to connect to a database and return information.

Security
Encryption
Encryption alters data into an unreadable form so that if the data is intercepted, it
will be useless to those that view it unless they the keys necessary to decode the
data. Most encryption is done using a mathematical formula called an algorithm
which includes keys that are used to decrypt the data. Public key encryption is an
encryption method that utilizes 2 keys in which 1 key is used to encrypt the data and
is available publicly while the other key is kept on the users computer and is used to
decrypt the data. There are several different types of encryption algorithms:

• One-Way encryption is a particular form of encryption in which the original data

can't be derived from the encrypted data. If Host A sends data to Host B, Host A
encrypts the data, sends the result to Host B, and Host B compares the
encrypted data from point A with its idea of what the result should be. MD5 and
SHA use one-way encryption algorithms.
• Symmetric encryption standards use the same key to encrypt and decrypt data.
DES, Triple DES and Skipjack are all symmetric encryption algorithms.
• Asymmetric encryption, also called public-key encryption, relies on two pairs of
keys to encrypt and decrypt a message. Each pair consists of a private key
known only to its user and a published public key. When a user encrypts a
 message, he uses his private key and the recipient’s public key to encode the
data. The recipient then uses his private key and the sender’s public key to
decode the message and verify the identity of the sender. Blowfish, RC2, RC4,
and RC5 use asymmetric encryption.
• A public-key infrastructure is a system for issuing public and private keys, and
disseminating public keys usually in the form of digital certificates for use in
decrypting messages or certifying the identity of a sender.
• SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and provides data encryption and
authentication services which are important for e-commerce transactions. HTTPS
signifies that the web page is using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol and
is providing a secure connection. A server SSL certificate is used for internet
business transactions allowing customers to verify that a business is legitimate.
CA certificates are used to identify the companies that are responsible for issuing
certificates to others and are known as a Certificate Authority. Object-signing
certificates are for signing objects such as files to provide information to
customers. S/MIME certificates are used to protect/encrypt sensitive email.

VPNs
VPN stands for virtual private network. A VPN provides secure communications over
public telecommunications infrastructures by utilizing encryption and a tunneling
protocol such as PPTP and L2TP. A VPN is a virtual private network and is designed
for situations where security is paramount such as allowing outsiders to connect to a
corporate LAN. When selective access is provided to entities outside an organization,
an intranet becomes an extranet. Extranets can potentially allow unwanted internet
users access to your company network which is why VPNs are commonly used with
extranets.

Attacks
The majority of all attacks come from the internal network. Disgruntled employees,
corporate spies, mistakes and visiting guests are all potential sources of attacks.
There are ways to track attacks before and after they happen using tools built into
most web servers as well as 3rd party software. Such actions can include auditing
the server's log files, investigating and configuring notification for multiple logon
failures and unauthorized access attempts and utilizing network monitoring software.
The various types of attacks are listed below:

• DOS - A denial of service (DoS) attack is a common type of attack in which false
requests to a server overload it to the point that it is unable to handle valid
requests. There are several different types of DoS attacks including Syn Flooding
and Ping Flooding.
• Syn Flooding - In a SYN Flood attack, the client uses an unavailable IP address so
that the server's SYN-ACK message never reaches its destination. This results in
a "half-open" connection. The attacker floods the server with these types of
requests making the server unable to respond to new valid requests.
• Ping Flooding - The ping utility utilizes the ICMP protocol. A Ping Flooding attack
is one in which the server is overloaded with Ping requests that it cannot keep up
with. A similar attack called "Ping of Death" sends overly large packets (over 64
bytes) to computer which will shut it down if it is not able to handle packets of
that size.
• Man-in-the-middle - These attacks can include the interception of email, files,
passwords and other types of data that can be transferred across a network. This
is a form of Data Theft attack.
• IP spoofing - A technique used to gain unauthorized access to computers,
whereby the intruder gives off the appearance that the packets they are sending
are coming from a trusted host. To engage in IP spoofing, an attacker must
modify the packet headers so that it appears that the packets are coming from
the trusted IP address.
• Virus - The most common computer infestation, viruses rely on other programs
such as an email client to replicate themselves. There are many different brands
of Anti-Virus software used to detect and eliminate viruses on computers. Virus
definition files are what tell the anti-virus software what to look for and how to fix
a particular virus if found. Because new viruses are being released all of the time,
it is very important to keep the virus definition files up to date.
• Worms - Worms are stand alone programs that do need other programs in order
to replicate themselves like a virus which relies on users to inadvertently spread
it. Viruses and Worms can be prevented by installing anti-virus software which
can be run on servers, clients, firewalls and other devices.
• Trojans - A Trojan is a type of file that appears to do one thing, but in reality
does another. A Trojan can be a file that operates in an expected way, but also
has a secret operation that subverts security. Once a Trojan is installed, it can
perform a wide variety of destructive tasks and/or provide secure information to
the attacker.
• Repudiation - While not necessarily an "attack", repudiation is when a party
denies any detail about the execution of an online business agreement. This
could be anything from denying that particular goods were ordered or received.
Non-repudiation defines ways of proving that a communication or transaction was
sent or received by an individual or company and can involve technologies such
as certificates.

Network Security Configurations:

 DMZ - A DMZ (demilitarized zone) is a computer host or small network inserted
as a "neutral zone" between a company's private network and the outside public
network. It prevents outside users from getting direct access to a server that has
company data.
 Bastion host - A bastion host is a computer that is fully exposed to attack. The
system is on the public side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), unprotected by a
firewall or filtering router. In fact, firewalls and routers can be considered bastion
hosts. Other types of bastion hosts include web, mail, DNS, and FTP servers. Some
network administrators will also use sacrificial lambs as bastion hosts. These systems
are deliberately exposed to potential hackers to both delay and facilitate tracking of
attempted break-ins.
 3 Homed Firewall - In a three-homed firewall configuration, you install three
network adapters in a computer that will act as a firewall. Each network card will
route traffic to one of these three networks: Internal network, DMZ network and the
Internet. This configuration provides better security than the bastion host
configuration, and you have the added benefit of managing both the DMZ and the
internal network from one location. However, one disadvantage of this configuration
is that if hackers are able to penetrate your firewall, they will have access to both
the DMZ and the internal network.
 Back-to-back firewalls - In this scenario, two computers are used as back-to-back
firewalls with a DMZ network in between them. This configuration is more secure
than a 3 homed firewall setup. With this approach, a potential hacker would need to
pass through two firewalls to gain access to your internal network.
Smart Cards:
The term smart card has been used to describe a class of credit card-sized devices
with varying capabilities. It is the ICC (Integrated Circuit Card) that is of most
interest to the personal computer because it is able to perform more sophisticated
operations such as digital signature and key exchange. Newer operating systems are
supporting smart card authentication.

Privacy:
Privacy entails keeping personal or corporate information from prying eyes, and
keeping it confidential while in transit and in storage from end-to-end of a
transaction lifecycle or information exchange. It should also be noted that privacy
also constitutes the policy surrounding the use and disclosure of customer
information to 3rd parties. The risk of not implementing enhanced privacy can
sometimes be the most significant issue, certainly in terms of public perception
resulting in loss of trust by your customers

Basic HTML
HTML stands for Hyper-text Markup Language and is used to create web pages.
HTML tells a web browser how to display the text and graphics that will be on a web
page by utilizing tags which are placed between angle brackets - <>. There are 3
required tags for an HTML document which are HTML, HEAD and BODY. Some of the
tags are ‘containers’ and they take a starting as well as an closing tag. For example,
<HTML> is the starting tag and </HTML> is the closing tag. Some important HTML
tags are discussed below.

• <HTML> - Starts a new HTML document.

• <HEAD> - Starts the HTML header.
• <BODY> - Starts the HTML body.
• <H1>, <H2>…<H6> - Starts a heading of level 1 to 6.
• <B>, <I>, <U> - Bold, italic, and underline.
• <A> - Anchor. Inserts a link or target. A link would be formatted as <a
href="http://www.mcmcse.com">.
• <IMG> - Insert and image or video. An example would be <img
src="http://www.mcmcse.com/example3.jpg">.
• <TITLE> - Used to give the title of the web page.
• <FONT> - Used to specify the font face and size such as <font face="2"
face="verdana">

Image Maps
An image map is a single image that is broken down into sections that can have a
unique URL associated with it. For example, an image map could be an image of the
United States with each state taking the user to a different web page when clicked
on.

Tables
Tables are defined with the <table> tag. A table is divided into rows (with the <tr>
tag), and each row is divided into data cells (with the <td> tag). The letters td
stands for "table data," which is the content of a data cell. A data cell can contain
text, images, lists, paragraphs, forms, horizontal rules, tables, etc. Below is an
example of a table and it's source code.
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>row 1, cell 1</td>
<td>row 1, cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row 2, cell 1</td>
<td>row 2, cell 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

How it looks in a browser:

row 1, cell 1 row 1, cell 2
row 2, cell 1 row 2, cell 2

There are a number of attributes that can be assigned to the tags used in tables to
specify dimensions, colors, borders, etc.

Unnumbered Lists
Unnumbered lists are bulleted and are created using the <UL> tag. Below is a
sample three-item list:

<UL>
<LI>MCSE</LI>
<LI>CCNA</LI>
<LI>CIW</LI>
</UL>

The output is:

• MCSE
• CCNA
• CIW

1. The <LI> items can contain multiple paragraphs. Indicate the paragraphs
with the <P> paragraph tags.

Numbered Lists
A numbered list (also called an ordered list, from which the tag name derives)
is identical to an unnumbered list, except it uses <OL> instead of <UL>. The
items are tagged using the same <LI> tag. The following HTML code:

<OL>
<LI>CIW</LI>
<LI>CCNA</LI>
<LI>MCSE</LI>
</OL>
Forms
Forms are widely used on the internet to collect information from users. You have
most certainly run into them when registering for a site, filling out an online survey
or placing an order. Forms allow users to enter information into fields that are to be
processed by a server and most likely stored in a database when the information is
submitted.

CSS
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is a simple styling language which allows
a webmaster to attach style to HTML elements in order to control margins, fonts,
colors, etc. CSS stores this information in templates called style sheets. CSS can be
used to create uniformity amongst the pages of a web site as well as providing an
easy method to update style elements for a web site by simply modifying the style
sheets instead of editing every page on the web site.

Server Side Includes

A server-side include is a variable value that a server can include in an HTML file
before it sends it to the requestor. This can be used for a variety of functions such as
adding a file "Last modified" date. By default, SSI requires an SHTML extension,
although while not commonly practiced, a web server can be configured to use other
extensions for SSI.

Indexing Your Site

Many search engines use spiders to index a web site by looking at TITLE tags, the
content of the 1st paragraph and tags. Meta tags are entered into the <HEAD>
portion of the document and can list a web page's description and keywords which
will be used during indexing. Common metatags include:
<title></title>
<meta name="description" content="">
<meta name="keywords" content="">

Once visitors have arrived at your site, there are a couple of things that you can do
to help them find their way around. First, you can use an index server to make your
site searchable. An index server works in a similar fashion to a search engine spider.
You can also add a site map to your web site which is a directory of the resources
that are available to your visitors.

Business Concepts
E-commerce
When a customer is shopping in an online store, shopping cart software allows the
customer to select multiple items from the catalog to be purchased in 1 transaction.
With the use of cookies, it can even store their items in the cart for a later purchase.

Transaction processing software receives and validates credit card information and
passes it along to the appropriate financial institution. This type of software may also
include order tracking functions. Following are some of the different transaction
types and methods:

 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of

business information using a public standard. EDI is a central part of e-commerce,
because it enables companies to exchange business information electronically much
faster, cheaper and more accurately than is possible using paper-based systems. The
parties who exchange EDI transmissions are referred to as trading partners.
 SET - SET stands for Secure Electronic Transaction. SET gives users a digital
certificate and a transaction is conducted and verified using a combination of digital
certificates and digital signatures among the parties involved in the transaction in
such a way that ensures privacy and confidentiality.
 EFT - Stands for Electronic Funds Transfer and is a system of transferring money
from one bank account directly to another without any paper money changing hands.
One of the most widely-used EFT programs is Direct Deposit, in which payroll is
deposited straight into an employee's bank account. Companies such as Etrade and
Paypal utilize this payment method.
 EBT - Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, is a system which makes the issuance
of state public assistance and federal food stamp benefits faster and easier through
the use of electronic transactions. Through the use of an EBT card clients can access
cash benefits through automated teller machines (ATM's) and food and cash benefits
at the point-of-sale (POS) terminals of retailers authorized by USDA to accept food
stamp benefits.
 OBI - Open Buying on the Internet is a standard for business-to-business
purchasing on the Internet and uses a number of security technologies such as the
digital certificate to allow orders to be placed and filled securely. There are four
entities involved in an OBI transaction: the requisitioner, the buying organization,
the selling organization, and the payment authority. The requisitioner is the person
who places the order and must have a digital certificate for authentication. The
buying organization maintains an OBI server that receives OBI order requests and
approves them. The buying organization also negotiates and maintains contracts
with selling organizations. It is the responsibility of the selling organization to provide
a catalog tailored to each department in each company, maintain products and prices
based on contracts with the buying organization, and authorize payments with the
appropriate payment authority.
 OTP - The Open Trading Protocol is a set of standards that makes all electronic
purchase transactions consistent for customers, merchants, and other involved
parties, regardless of payment system. OTP accommodates a wide range of payment
systems such as Secure Electronic Transaction, digital cash, e-checks, and debit
cards.

Electronic Business Models:

These models are self-explanatory and define the different types of electronic
business models. The classifications include:
Business
Consumer
Government
Employee
As an example a business to consumer (B2C) model would be a company that sells
their products to consumers via electronic means such as Amazon.com. We, for
example, utilize a business to business (B2B) model since we make our money from
advertising revenue from other companies. The can be any variety of combinations
of these classifications.

Marketing:
There are a wide variety of concepts that must be considered when marketing a web
site. One of the most important concepts of internet marketing is demographics.
When marketing your web site, it is important that your message hits your target
market. For example, if you are selling USA flags, it probably would not make much
sense to market your site internationally. Similarly, if you were advertising Oregon
maps, it probably wouldn't do much good to target your ads to the entire U.S.. User
registrations provide an effective way to gather information about your user base
and aid in the targeting of advertising purchases and sales.

Copyrights
Copyright owners have the right to reproduce their work for the purpose of sale and
to prevent others from copying or re-using their material. Copyright does not
prevent others from using the ideas or information revealed by a piece of work.
Copyright does not protect procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation,
concepts, principles or discoveries. Copyrights are obtained through the Library of
Congress and last for 50 years after the owner's death.

Trademarks
A trademark is a word, name, symbol, phrase, or logo used in commerce to identify
the goods manufacturer and to distinguish the goods from those of other companies.
Servicemarks provide a similar function but apply to services.