1.3.3 Networks - Josh D Flashcards
What is a standalone machine?
A single computer not connected to any other computer
How is a network formed?
By connecting one computing device to another via cable or wireless
What are 5 important advantages of networks?
- Users can share files
- Users can share peripherals and internet connection
- Users can access files from other computers
- Servers can control security, updates and backups
- You can communicate with other people e.g. email
What are 3 important disadvantages of networks?
- Malware and viruses spread easily between computers
- Central dependency on server
- Computers may run slower with high network traffic
What is a standard and two important examples?
Standards are a set of hardware and software specifications that allow manufacturers to create products and services that are compatible with each other. E.g. character sets (ascii, unicode) and HTML
What is a protocol?
Protocols are a key way of ensuring technology-based standards are followed
What does the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) do?
TCP provides error free transmission between two routers
What does the Internet Protocol (IP) do?
IP routes packets across a WAN
What does the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) do?
UDP is an alternative to TCP with no error checking (so it’s unreliable). It is a simple end-to-end connection model used to send short messages where speed is more important than accuracy (e.g. gaming).
What protocols are used for communication over LAN/WAN?
TCP, IP, UDP
What does the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) do?
HTTP allows client and server to send and receive requests.
Used to deliver HTML web pages. Fundamental protocol for WWW
What is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?
HTTPS is the same as HTTP but involves encryption and authentication. The ‘s’ stands for secure
What protocol is used for sending files over a WAN?
File Transmission Protocol (FTP)
What is an FTP client?
An app that sits above the FTP protocol and generates the appropriate FTP commands automatically
What is the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP)?
It transfers outgoing emails from clients to servers, and between servers
What is the post office protocol (POP)?
POP retrieves emails from a server and transfers it to your device. It is deleted from the server.
What is the internet message access protocol (IMAP)?
IMAP keeps emails on the server, maintaining synchronicity between devices. You view a copy of the email.
What is the Internet and the World Wide Web?
The Internet is a wide area network of WANs. WWW is a service on the internet. Internet ≠ WWW
What is the concept of layers?
To divide the complex tasks of networking into smaller simpler tasks that work in tandem with each other.
Each layer has a defined responsibility and each one provides a service to the layer above
What are 3 advantages of using layers?
- It reduces a complex problem into smaller sub-problems
- Devices can be manufactured to operate at a particular layer
- Products from different vendors will work together
What are the 4 layers in the TCP/IP stack?
Application, Transport, Internet and Link
What happens on the application layer?
Network applications (web browsers, email clients etc) use an appropriate protocol to transmit data
Give some examples of protocols that occur on the application layer
FTP, HTTP(S), STMP, IMAP, POP
What happens on the transport layer?
- Establishes a connection using UDP
- Data is split into packets
- Port numbers + sequence numbers are added to the packet header