INTERNET MANAGEMENT
Session 0: Introduction
© Brian Brown. 1997-2000. All rights reserved.
Aim
To introduce the subject of Internet Management and provide a
framework for the field of study.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this session the student should be able to
Course Requirements
This course is part of the larger module IT6202. As part of this
course you will learn about Internet Management, construct a
number of Internet Servers, and perform administrative tasks
related to Internet Management.
This is a relatively new field. This means that the Internet and computer journals are a good source of information as new practices of management and new management tools are emerging on a regular basis.
To complete this course you must pass all the assessments and a written test. The course outline gives details of when these assessments are due and their weighting.
Course overview
This course consists of four major components.
Lectures Details major areas of study and gives examples in formal group situations Tutorials Explains concepts in depth, informal discussions, normally in small groups and driven by questions Practical Labs Hands on exercises in pairs or individually Self Study Research and study individually in the students own time
On average, a student should expect to spend around 3-4 hours of self study per week by reading the supplemental material listed in each sessions references.
Each week of the course is devoted to a particular area of Internet Management. The last session may be a summative overview of all the sessions. However, it is important for students to read the supplemental references as this information is important for a deeper understanding of the issues.
List of topics
This course runs over a number of weeks. Each week a new area
will be investigated. The various areas that have been identified
for this course are
Assessments
This course comprises a number of assessments. Three formal
assessments are described in the course outline. The following
describes each assessment associated with this course.
Terms
This describes the work that a student must satisfactorily complete before the final exam can be taken. Terms for this course consist of completing all practical lab exercises and a pass grade on each of the three assessments. In addition, each week a sheet of research topics will be handed out to each student. This information is to be found and summarized by the student and submitted at the next lecture. The sheet should take no more than an hour to complete. Students are required to hand in a minimum of ten sheets for terms.
Presentations
Each student is required to pick a specified area of study. After researching the topic, a short presentation is to be given to the class, which includes a list of all references. A list of topics will be available during the first week, and shall be selected on a first come first served basis.
Labs
These are practical exercises for each student to follow. They involve setting up and managing servers and performing Internet Management tasks.
Controlled Tests
During the course two controlled tests will be conducted that are based on the practical exercises already undertaken by the students. These shall be under controlled exam conditions and are conducted individually by each student.
Exam
A final summative test will conclude the course. All areas covered in the lectures shall be examinable.
What is Internet
Management?
This unit is about Internet Management. What is it? What does it
mean? What does it involve? Who does it? Why is it important?
These are important questions, which this unit is designed to
help you address. Be aware that there are differing views, so
some answers are not as clear-cut as you might imagine.
A simple search for "Internet Management" on www.altavista.com responds with several thousand results. It reveals a number of companies that are also involved in Internet Management and offer these services to others.
Internet Management is concerned about a wide range of issues related to Internet activity and resources. Here is a list of some
Can you think of other issues?
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a global connection of computers. These computers
are connected via a huge network of telecommunications links. The
Internet allows you to access to a whole resource of data and
information stored at different sites (called hosts or servers)
and locations all around the world. The communication links that
interconnect each host computer use a common method of
transmission, known as TCP/IP, which stands for Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
Each computer connected to the Internet (by the way, it is always spelt with a capital I) can act as a host. A host computer provides information for other people to access and retrieve.
History of the Internet
The Internet had its origins in the cold war between Russia and
America during the 1960's. Concerned about the survivability of
its communications in the event of a nuclear strike, the US air
force needed to ensure that it could still communicate with its
forces.
 |
The RAND corporation proposed a system with no centralized authority, as any centralized system would be a target of any possible attack. |
The proposed system, developed by Paul Baran, suggested a decentralized system that would still operate even if parts of it were destroyed.
| All interconnections in the network could send and receive messages, forwarding them onto other interconnection points (called nodes) until the message reached its destination. |  |
 |
Information would be sent in little packets, each packet would be self contained and have its own address information. Packets would travel from node to node, each node deciding how to send the packet to the next available node. Even if some nodes were destroyed, the message could still be sent by an alternative route. |
In this way, the network would withstand a nuclear strike. After implementing the network, it was known as ARPANET and used by the US military and US universities. Gradually, as more and more connections were made, it has evolved to the Internet.
Services available on the
Internet
The Internet provides for a wide range of services. Some of these
are listed in the table below.
Service Description of Service Electronic mail. Permits the sending and receiving of messages to other users connected to the Internet. FTP File Transfer Protocol. A means of sending and receiving files from one computer to another. GOPHER An early form of representing information as graphical icons or symbols that could be displayed in a window and then downloaded. It has been replaced by the WWW. TELNET A protocol that permits a user to logon to a remote computer and execute programs on that computer. USENET A number of discussion groups that allow users to post questions and replies, sorted by topic. Also known as news. WWW World Wide Web. Accessed using a web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, a means of locating and displaying information located on the Internet.
Internet Service Providers
Internet Service Providers (ISP's) are companies that provide
others with access to the Internet. This can be via dial-up
connection using a modem, or using an ISDN or permanent
high-speed connection. Various charging levels may exist, but a
popular method for home users is flat rate (per month unlimited
time and data amount).
Each user can access the Internet through connection on an existing network or via a modem from a remote site such as a private residence. The data and information that can be accessed on the Internet comes in numerous different formats and there a wide range of applications that interpret the information for the user.
Intranets
An Intranet is an internal TCP/IP network that is not visible
outside the company or department where it resides, essentially
being used as a repository of local documents. It uses the same
technology as web servers that the Internet uses. Companies today
deal with masses of information. This information is in many
forms, typically, to name a few
Companies can no longer justify printing this information and keeping it up to date. Using an Intranet solves this problem, by providing a single document that can more readily be kept up to date. By storing this data on an Intranet, users get access to the information and can search this information faster and with greater ease than before.
Protocols
A protocol is a set of rules for the exchange of data. In the
political world, protocol refers to how you are polite
(diplomatic) and tactful to your adversaries. In the network
world, a protocol refers to the method used to encode and
exchange information between two computers.
The Internet relies on the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (called TCP/IP) for sending and receiving data. TCP/IP will be covered in more detail in another section of this course.
Other protocols used in networking and communications are
NETBEUI One of the original networking protocols invented by IBM to connect computers in a small network together. X.25 A low-speed protocol that breaks data into “packets” and includes high levels of error detection XDSL Digital Subscriber Line protocol, a high-speed (up to 6 Mbps downstream) dial-up switched connection that uses the standard telephone cable ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A high speed protocol (655Mbps) that breaks data down into small chunks and suitable for handling video and real-time data Frame Relay A medium speed protocol (up to around 256K) similar to X.25 but without the significant overhead PPP Point to Point Protocol. A slow speed protocol used primarily for dial-up for remote access
TCP/IP is like a transport protocol. Think of it as a bus that transports information from a source to a destination. TCP/IP does not really care what it carries in the bus, so this means other protocols can reside on top of TCP/IP. Just as a passenger gets on the bus and is transported from one place to another, other protocols can use TCP/IP to send data from one point to another.
Some of the protocols that can reside on top of TCP/IP are
FTP TELNET Gopher WAIS Finger Whois HTTP SHTTP
Servers
A server is a computer that provides a service. It is not
uncommon to find a single server providing more than one service
(mainly for economic reasons). In some cases it makes sense to
separate services so they are not all provided by the same
server. If a server went down, you want to minimize the impact on
users by ensuring that other services were still available. This
availability of service needs to be traded off against the cost
of providing extra servers and the cost of lost productivity
through downtime (the length of time that the service is
unavailable).
Typical services available are
DNS Web List Chat/Conferencing Media Servers Application File Remote Access
The World Wide Web
| Invented by Tim Berners Lee in 1991 (the idea was first proposed in 1989) that combined a new way to share and find information on the Internet. The web uses HTML pages, the HTTP protocol and a web browser to view and display information. |  |
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html
Q: What is the difference between
the Net and the Web?
The Internet ('Net) is a network of networks. Basically it is
made from computers and cables. What Vint Cerf and Bob Khan did
was to figure out how this could be used to send around little
"packets" of information. As Vint points out, a packet
is a bit like a postcard with a simple address on it. If you put
the right address on a packet, and gave it to any computer which
is connected as part of the Net, each computer would figure out
which cable to send it down next so that it would get to its
destination. That's what the Internet does. It delivers packets -
anywhere in the world, normally well under a second.Lots of
different sort of programs use the Internet: electronic mail, for
example, was around long before the global hypertext system I
invented and called the World Wide Web ('Web). Now,
videoconferencing and streamed audio channels are among other
things which, like the Web, encode information in different ways
and use different languages between computers
("protocols") to do provide a service.The Web is an
abstract (imaginary) space of information. On the Net, you find
computers -- on the Web, you find document, sounds, videos,....
information. On the Net, the connections are cables between
computers; on the Web, connections are hypertext links. The Web
exists because of programs which communicate between computers on
the Net. The Web could not be without the Net. The Web made the
net useful because people are really interested in information
(not to mention knowledge and wisdom!) and don't really want to
have know about computers and cables.
Who is responsible for the
Internet and WWW?
The Internet and WWW has gradually evolved over a short period of
time. Because of its dispersed nature that crosses national
borders, it has been difficult to regulate. No one company or
organization owns the Internet.
ISOC Internet Society. www.isoc.orgProfessional body that is responsible for the future direction of the Internet. CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research. www.cern.ch
Responsible for the early development of the Web and HTML standards.W3C World Wide Web Consortium. www.w3c.org
Created in October 1994, responsible for new designs, standards and development of the Web. Published standards for HTML and XML.IETF Internet Engineering Task Force. www.ietf.org
Concerned with the architecture and operation of the Internet.IESG Internet Engineering Steering Group. www.ietf.org/iesg.html
Responsible for the technical management of IETF activities.ITU International Telecommunications Union. www.itu.org
Started in 1865 as an international body that negotiated telegraph interconnection agreements between countries. Also responsible for radio and satellite spectrum allocations.WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization. www.wipo.org
Intergovernmental organization based in Geneva and part of the UN. Responsible for promoting IP rights throughout the world and administering signed treaties between countries on IP.
What do you think are FOUR major issues of goverance and standards for the Internet and WWW?
Request For Comments (RFC)
http://www.rfc-editor.org/
There is an established procedure for proposing and adopting new
Internet protocols. Authors write an RFC document and publish it
on the Internet for comment. After much revision, it may be
adopted as a standard. RFC documents are a series of notes,
started in 1969, about the Internet (originally the ARPANET). The
notes discuss many aspects of computer communication, focusing on
networking protocols, procedures, programs, and concepts.
Many standards are RFC’s. For example RFC 1157 covers the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and RFC 8251 covers the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
References
The Internet
Intro to the Internet self study course with tests, must register to use http://www.netskills.ac.uk/TonicNG/cgi/sesame?tng
Intro to Internet terms
http://thinkertoy.com/hrlinks/index.htmlHistory of the Internet
http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.htmlhttp://www.isoc.org/internet-history/brief.html
http://www.pbs.org/internet/timeline/index.html this has an interactive slider!History of the web
http://www.hitmill.com/internet/web_history.htmlTim Berners Lee
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Overview.htmlHow the Web Works
http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/ACHIEVEMENTS/WEB/howworks.html
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Last modified July 06, 2000
© Copyright Brian Brown, 1997-2000. All rights reserved.