Course:Web Technology

Target group: Computer science 5th years.

Prepared by: Sime Abebe

Assignment 1
Discuss and explain the following questions accordingly.
1. what is internet? Discuss briefly.
What is the internet?
The internet is the wider network that allows computer networks around the world run by
companies, governments, universities and other organizations to talk to one another. The
result is a mass of cables, computers, data centers, routers, servers, repeaters, satellites
and Wi-Fi towers that allows digital information to travel around the world.
Uses of Internet has been the most useful technology of the modern times which helps us
not only in our daily lives, but also our personal and professional lives developments. The
internet helps us achieve this in several different ways
2. What is domain name and it function?
 A domain name is your website name. A domain name is the address where Internet
users can access your website. A domain name is used for finding and identifying
computers on the Internet. Computers use IP addresses, which are a series of number.
However, it is difficult for humans to remember strings of numbers. Because of this,
domain names were developed and used to identify entities on the Internet rather than
using IP addresses.
A domain name can be any combination of letters and numbers, and it can be used in
combination of the various domain name extensions, such as .com, .net and more.
The domain name must be registered before you can use it. Every domain name is
unique. No two websites can have the same domain name. If someone types in
www.yourdomain.com, it will go to your website and no one else's.

This functions as, when the user enters the URL in the web browser, Domain Name System
helps in contacting the correct web servers which are available in the internet. Data’s are
 growing day by day. To organize the infrastructure of the data, these DNS provides various
facilities. Domain names function on the Internet in a manner similar to a physical address in the
physical world. Each part of the domain name provides specific information. These pieces of
information enable web browsers to locate the web page. The naming system is closely regulated in
order to prevent confusion or duplicate addresses. As demand increased exponentially, a new
Internet Protocol version, or IPv6, was created to expand the amount of domain names available.

3. Explain the operation of web server?

A Web server is software or hardware that uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and
other protocols to respond to client requests made over the World Wide Web (WWW). Web
server software controls how a user accesses hosted files. It is accessed through the domain
names of websites and ensures the delivery of the site's content to the requesting user. As
hardware, a Web server is a computer that holds web server software and other files related
to a website, such as HTML documents, images and JavaScript files. Web server hardware is
connected to the internet and allows data to be exchanged with other connected devices.

The Web server process is an example of the client/server model. All computers that host Web
sites must have Web server software. Leading Web servers include Apache, Microsoft's Internet
Information Server (IIS) and Nginx -- pronounced engine X. Other Web servers include Novell's
NetWare server, Google Web Server (GWS) and IBM's family of Domino servers.

4. What do you thing of the advantage and disadvantage of the internet?

Advantages of Internet:
 E-mail: Email is now an essential communication tools in business. With e-mail you can
send and receive instant electronic messages, which works like writing letters. Your
messages are delivered instantly to people anywhere in the world, unlike traditional mail
that takes a lot of time. Email is free, fast and very cheap when compared to telephone,
fax and postal services.
 24 hours a day - 7 days a week: Internet is available,24x7 days for usage.
 Information: Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. There is
a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject,
ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market
information, new ideas and technical support. You can almost find any type of data on
almost any kind of subject that you are looking for by using search engines like google,
yahoo, msn, etc.
  Online Chat: You can access many ‘chat rooms’ on the web that can be used to meet
new people, make new friends, as well as to stay in touch with old friends. You can chat
in MSN and yahoo websites.
 Services: Many services are provided on the internet likened banking, job searching,
purchasing tickets, hotel reservations, guidance services on array of topics engulfing
every aspect of life.
 Communities: Communities of all types have sprung upon the internet. Its a great way
to meet up with people of similar interest and discuss common issues.
 E-commerce: Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop online.
There are many online stores and sites that can be used to look for products as well as
buy them using your credit card. You do not need to leave your house and can do all
your shopping from the convenience of your home. It has got a real amazing and wide
range of products from household needs, electronics to entertainment.
 Entertainment: Internet provides facility to access wide range of Audio/Video songs,
plays films. Many of which can be downloaded. One such popular website is YouTube.
 Software Downloads: You can freely download innumerable, software’s like utilities,
games, music, videos, movies, etc from the Internet.
 Limitations of Internet
 Theft of Personal information: Electronic messages sent over the Internet can be easily
snooped and tracked, revealing who is talking to whom and what they are talking about.
If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your name, address, credit
card, bank details another information can be accessed by unauthorized persons
 Negative effects on family communication: It is generally observed that due to more
time spent on Internet, there is a decrease in communication and feeling of togetherness
among the family members.
 Virus threat: Today, not only are humans getting viruses, but computers are also.
Computers are mainly getting these viruses from the Internet. Virus is is a program
which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer systems. Computers attached to
internet are more prone to virus attacks and they can end up into crashing your whole
hard disk.
 Spamming: It is often viewed as the act of sending unsolicited email. This multiple or
vast emailing is often compared to mass junk mailings. It needlessly obstruct the entire
system. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick
schemes, torques-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send most of the
costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender

5. Justify the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and its operation?

6. Define and explain the operation URL?

What is a URL?
URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, and it is one of the core concepts of modern
computing. By definition, a URL is a formatted text string referring to the location of a resource
on a computer network (most commonly the web). Typically, these resources are web pages, but
they can also be text documents, graphics, programs, or pretty much anything that can be stored
digitally.

In addition to the "address" of the resource, a full URL will also imply the method (or protocol)
by which the resource will be retrieved.

7. What are basic features of HTTP? Justify.

There are three basic features that make HTTP a simple but powerful protocol:
 HTTP is connectionless: The HTTP client, i.e., a browser initiates an HTTP
request and after a request is made, the client disconnects from the server and
waits for a response. The server processes the request and re-establishes the
connection with the client to send a response back.
 HTTP is media independent: It means, any type of data can be sent by HTTP as
long as both the client and the server know how to handle the data content. It is
required for the client as well as the server to specify the content type using
appropriate MIME-type.
 HTTP is stateless: As mentioned above, HTTP is connectionless and it is a
direct result of HTTP being a stateless protocol. The server and client are
aware of each other only during a current request. Afterwards, both of them
forget about each other. Due to this nature of the protocol, neither the
client nor the browser can retain information between different requests
across the web pages.

8. Draw a basic architecture of web application and explain each of them?

9. List HTTP message headers and describe their function.?

10. List three examples of requesting method with their operation?